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HERE STAND I! 


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HERE STAND I 


MARTIN NIEMOLLER 


With Foreword by 

JAMES MOFFATT 


Translated by 
JANE LYMBURN 

9 



Willett, Clark & Company 

CHICAGO NEW YORK 


*937 


.fc/Yll’h 


Copyright 1937 by 
WILLETT, CLARK & COMPANY 


Manufactured in The U. S. A. by The Plimpton Press 
Norwood, Mass.-La Porte, Ind. 



English edition published by 
William Hodge & Company, Ltd. 


©Cl A 

Apf j> 


115850 





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CONTENTS 


Foreword, by James Moffatt vii 

Grace i 

First Intimation of the Passion io 

The Feeding of the Five Thousand 19 

We Would See Jesus! 29 

All Men 37 

The Parable of the Rich Man 45 

The Chosen Generation 52 

Justification Without the Deeds of the Law 59 

The Sifting 66 

The Anointing 72 

He is Risen ! 78 

Brotherly Love versus Hatred of the World 84 

Look on Us! 91 

The Stilling of the Tempest 97 

The Father’s Will 103 

Unless Ye Repent ... no 

Power 117 

Fellowship in the Gospel 124 

Martha and Mary 13 i 

Judge Me, O God! 138 

V 


VI 


Contents 


The Burial 

144 

But God! 

150 

Thomas 

156 

Suffering and Glory 

163 

Death and Sin, Grace and Life 

171 

Lift Up a Standard 

178 

Of the Temptation of the Church 

185 

Ye Would Not! 

192 

The Office of the Church 

199 

The Widow’s Mite 

206 

Harvest Thanksgiving 

213 

One Last Word 

221 


FOREWORD 


Dr. Karl Barth dedicated a recent book, “ To the ministers 
... in memory of all who stood, stand, and will stand.” 
Of the five German ministers named by him, Martin Nie- 
moller, the vicar of Berlin-Dahlem, is one. In his autobiog¬ 
raphy Niemoller has explained how at the end of the war he 
passed “ from u-boat to pulpit.” The present volume will 
explain why he is to be found among the ministers of the 
Lutheran Church who are rallying a core of their faithful 
fellow countrymen against the insidious new paganism 
which in the name of patriotism is undermining loyalty to 
the Christian gospel. Dr. Niemoller’s sermons are an urgent 
recall to the “ Center,” that is, to the revelation of God in 
Jesus Christ for which and by which vital Christianity stands 
in any country. It is reassuring to find that he feels no need 
to repent of having taken part in war. Also, that he does not 
attack details of the new state worship which is mixed up 
with Hitlerism. He is content to preach the commanding 
Word of God with its demands for spiritual faith and free¬ 
dom in the church and in the individual life, and this he does 
with a direct, urgent note which rings clear as a bell across 
the frontiers of Germany. He fought against the Allies 
during the war, but he will win from many of them in this 
country a deep sympathy with his efforts to win the greater 
war against dark powers of worldliness in political and even 
in ecclesiastical life. He stands for Christianity as the religion 
which is religion. What he has to say is not new, but it is 


Foreword 


viii 

always needed, never more so than today, and it is reassuring 
to hear a Lutheran minister saying it with force and frank¬ 
ness. The publication of this volume is doubly welcome. It 
will enable Christians in this land to understand more in¬ 
telligently what inspires the faithful minority in Germany 
who uphold allegiance to the “ Center ” of Christianity, and it 
will also refresh those who are on the outlook for conviction 
and simplicity in preaching the deep things of God. 

James Moffatt 

Union Theological Seminary, 

New York 


HERE STAND I! 


GRACE 


(New Year’s Day, 1933) 

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made 
perfect in weakness. —II Cor. 12:9 

❖ 

May God be with us in the new year, dear brethren, and 
may the Lord Jesus Christ comfort us! For we shall have 
great need of his comfort in the year across whose threshold 
we have just stepped, this year which lies before us like an 
unknown country. 

What it will bring to us none of us knows. We enter it 
with that strange, confused mixture of hope and fear, con¬ 
fidence and doubt, which always accompanies uncertainty 
and ignorance of what is to come: some of us more hopefully, 
some more skeptically, according to our temperament; some 
bent down with the burden of care and woe which they 
must take with them, others strengthened and uplifted by 
the experiences of the past year. But whatever our attitude 
we are all stepping into the darkness, and the many good 
wishes for the new year which we heap upon one another 
do not really lighten this gloom, for we know that in spite 
of all these wishes this new year, too, will bring us struggles 
and cares and sorrows. Thus it has ever been and thus it re¬ 
mains : it is man’s lot to struggle and worry and suffer. 

And if we feel that things were perhaps not so dark or so 
difficult in former times, we must just remember that we have 
to take our years as they come. We must go forward into 


2 


Here Stand I! 

them and live through them, and we are not asked whether 
we will or not, or whether we think we can. So we enter 
this new year and prepare to take upon ourselves new strug¬ 
gles, new cares and new sorrows. And therefore I repeat, 
may God be with us and may the Lord Jesus Christ com¬ 
fort us. 

For indeed I know not who else could or should send us a 
message of comfort at this time save he alone from whom our 
years take their name. Nor does the world know any other 
so far; and though it may not believe in his comfort it, too, 
is forced to reckon its years from him; and so must even those 
of its inhabitants to whom this comfort means less than noth¬ 
ing and who see in him the real hindrance to a better future. 

This day then, by reminding us that nineteen hundred and 
thirty-three years ago Christ was born, brings God’s message 
to the whole world and offers to everyone who hears that 
message the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be sure, 
many people no longer hear this message from God, and 
many of those who do hear it do not know what to do with 
the comfort of Christ the Lord at the beginning of a new 
year. What, then, is the meaning of this message and what 
is the use of this comfort ? It is a perplexing question, I ad¬ 
mit, even for those of us who call ourselves Christians and 
belong to the community of the Lord. 

It is undoubtedly a fact that we Christians must pass 
through the same darkness as others and that we must fight 
the same battles and endure the same cares and sorrows as 
they: sin invades our lives; unemployment does not spare 
our families; death penetrates into our houses; we groan 
with the others beneath the terrible misery of our nation. 
Nay, more: over and above all those tragedies we must help 


Grace 


3 

to bear the guilt of Christendom and the burden of our lack 
of faith; and how often do we start when we hear the ques¬ 
tion, sometimes spoken as mockery from without, sometimes 
as doubt from within: “ Where is thy God? ” Does it not 
really seem as though we Christians were the step-children 
of happiness and the outcasts among the peoples ? 

We look back at the year which now lies finished behind 
us. How many buried hopes it holds, how many unanswered 
prayers! How often did our will power fail; how often, with 
the best will in the world, did we lack the power to act; and 
how often were our honest efforts frustrated! Added to that, 
there was the oppressive and impeding dead weight of re¬ 
sponsibility and guilt. 

Remembering these things we may well ask anxiously, 
standing at the threshold of this year of salvation, this year 
of the Lord which claims to bring us again God’s message 
and Christ’s comfort, whether this claim is more than an 
empty name or whether it is but sound and smoke, signifying 
nothing. 

I believe, dear friends, that we are all familiar with this 
doubt, and so it is no use trying — even with the aid of a 
biblical quotation — to console ourselves this morning by 
saying that the much talked of better days for which our 
hearts yearn must surely come. God has given us no promise 
whatever that this new year will be better, kinder and more 
bearable than the last; and any of us who expect it to be so 
and draw new hope and new courage from that expectation 
will soon be discouraged and disappointed when bold and 
resolute decisions are demanded of us. 

What God’s intentions may be with regard to our nation 
or to ourselves in the new year we do not and shall not know. 


4 Here Stand I! 

We must pray that our lot may again be bearable and that 
our strength may not fail. That is the end for which we 
must strive and for which we are responsible; but an assur¬ 
ance of success on which we could establish ourselves has not 
been and will not be given us. 

Unfortunately not! And this “ unfortunately ” is not mere 
rhetoric; it is called forth by definite and genuine affliction 
of which we are daily becoming more acutely conscious and 
which is robbing us of hope and confidence in action. What 
would we not give for assurance of a better lot — indeed, 
what is today not actually being offered for it? Countless 
men and women, driven by lamentable curiosity, are selling 
their faith in God to soothsayers. But the price they pay is 
too high, and instead of the desired assurance they buy only a 
redoubled fear of what is to come, a fear which completely 
paralyzes every faculty. We must bear the pain of this un¬ 
certainty, for God will not take it away, any more than he 
took away from St. Paul the affliction under which the apostle 
groaned as from a “ thorn in the flesh ” and which drove him 
thrice to prayer. But God gives us the Lord Jesus Christ to 
comfort us as he gave of old to his apostle, and through Christ 
he puts an end to our tribulation. 

The anxious questions about the future remain unan¬ 
swered, but we are given a message to which we can cling, a 
message that puts us, with all our struggles and cares and 
sorrows, on firm ground and makes the new year, with all 
that it may bring to us or take from us, a year of the Lord and 
of salvation: “ And he said unto me: My grace is sufficient 
for thee.” 

Grace! The question is whether we can hear this word 
— hear it in such a way that it means something to us. It 


Grace 


5 

has come to be a dull and insignificant sound in our ears; it 
has become an auxiliary and complementary word. When 
we speak of grace we generally mean that God is our great 
helper in time of trouble, hastening to our aid when we are 
not sure what to do next, setting right by his forgiveness what¬ 
ever wrong or wicked thing we have done, and as a lenient 
judge, showing understanding for the limits of our ability 
so as to assess the result of our lives positively, in spite of all 
our failings. 

But, dear friends, that is not the grace of God. That is a 
wicked caricature with which a narrow-minded, individual 
Christianity allowed itself to be satisfied in happier times 
and in so doing lost the living God and the living Christ 
Jesus. Such a Christianity had only an artificial God and an 
artificial Christ and an artificial grace; it was a piece of self- 
deception with which, I dare say, it was possible to live com¬ 
fortably and peacefully for a while, so long as no one and 
nothing knocked against the house of cards. But since then 
God has knocked violently against it, and the dream of the 
gracious God who will preserve earth and heaven and whose 
sole care is to see that everything runs smoothly — this dream 
is gone forever. And anyone who is still willing to con¬ 
tent himself with this so-called grace and believes that it will 
strengthen him in his struggle with the future, will lose 
the ground from under his feet — before he has found a foot¬ 
ing. Yet surely when this happens we should not blame the 
grace of God for our illusions! 

No, grace means this: the living God meets us personally 
in the Lord Jesus Christ — the living 1 meets the living Thou 
— desiring to be our God and Father, to overcome our dis¬ 
trust and conquer our fear of him so that we may turn to 


6 Here Stand I! 

him and give him our whole trust. We generally call this 
turning and this placing of trust, “ repentance ” and “ faith.” 

Undoubtedly, the grace of God is to be found only where 
God comes personally to me so that I am likewise dealing 
personally with him, and only where God shows me that I 
must and can put my trust in him. And this grace of God 
is in the Lord Jesus Christ; it is there today and it is there 
tomorrow also, as long as Christ is proclaimed among us; 
and this grace of God is enough and must be enough for us: 
“ My grace is sufficient for thee ”! 

This grace puts our lives on an entirely new footing. It 
places us on God’s side and makes us certain of his forgiveness 
and his favor. This does not mean that we are spared 
struggles or cares or sorrows, or that the uncertainty con¬ 
cerning the future is taken from us; but it does mean that 
a load falls from us and that we lose the fear caused by the 
sense of having an intolerable responsibility resting upon us 
— the fear of having to answer personally for the success or 
failure of our actions. 

The grace of God makes us humble. It reminds us again 
and again that God stoops to us, that he always takes the first 
step, that he is for us the omnipresent Giver and Forgiver, and 
that he is and remains our Lord and Father. But while God’s 
grace puts God’s relation to us in order, it also shows us our 
proper place with regard to God: we are children and serv¬ 
ants; we are sinners who live on forgiveness and beggers 
who live on gifts; God comes to us, we do not go to him. 
We stand in faith and obedience. His are the grace and the 
dominion, ours is the trivial daily round, and his the issue. 

We all know that beautiful sentence from the letter to the 
Hebrews: “For it is a good thing that the heart be estab- 


Grace 


7 

lished with grace. . . Indeed, if we let ourselves be put 
where God’s grace puts us, if we “ stand in grace,” then noth¬ 
ing can overthrow us. We may be no more than children, 
but we are children who have a rich and loving Father; 
we may be only servants, but we are servants who have a 
kind, strong Master. Yes, we may be beggars who know 
not today what tomorrow will bring, but our hands are 
never empty; we may be sinners who are conscious of our 
guilt and who are daily reminded by fresh guilt that we are 
sinners, yet we do not forfeit the forgiveness of God, but re¬ 
ceive grace for grace from the love and fullness of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

I ask you, is not that really enough; cannot we be satis¬ 
fied with that for the new year and for the path upon which 
we set out today? It is enough; for if we stand in God’s 
grace we are believing men and women, and as believing men 
and women we are given the courage and the cheerfulness 
and the good conscience to begin our work anew. All 
work, all action, requires a faith. Where there is nothing 
but pure skepticism or barren doubt, action ceases and what 
we call life becomes mere existence. 

Life and action are possible only when our lives are based 
on the conviction that our actions have a meaning. We 
need religion, we need God or an idol, we need faith or a 
superstition, to be able to live; there remains no third course 
save flight from life, and that is no longer life. 

But every superstition which we hold to brings us to the 
edge of this abyss: whether we believe in luck or in riches 
or in efficiency, whether we see the meaning of life in our 
family or in our profession or in our nation, one single 
bereavement, one grave reverse, one grievous disappoint- 


8 Here Stand I! 

ment can throw our whole life off balance and paralyze 
all our energy. The fact is that we are not so strong or so 
sure of our way as we persuade ourselves; after all, we be¬ 
lieve in our idols only with faltering heart and uneasy con¬ 
science, and hence our actions are swayed by a mixture of 
courage and cowardice, confidence and fear, strength and 
weakness. 

But it is otherwise when our lives are based on faith, 
when we go to our work as men and women who are estab¬ 
lished in God’s grace, who are therefore free from the secret 
fear that God will leave them in the lurch in moments of 
crisis, and who are unencumbered by personal responsibility 
for success or failure. 

The grace of God makes us humble. We are not God’s 
generals but his soldiers. Ours is not to make the plans, 
but to carry out orders — and it is that which makes our 
lives glad and assured; it is that which gives the men and 
women who believe in God’s grace and find it sufficient 
the happy carefree spirit which dares to act and is discour¬ 
aged by no sorrow and by no failure. Therein are all be¬ 
lieving Christians — however different they may otherwise 
be — alike, whether they be called Paul, Augustine or Luther, 
Wichern, Fliedner or Bodelschwingh, or whether they bear 
a name which has never reached our ears; for therein is the 
truth of the saying revealed: “ My strength is made perfect 
in weakness.” 

The grace of God makes people humble and yet at the 
same time and for that very reason it makes them strong, 
for it creates men and women who are unencumbered and 
who are therefore free to act because their trust is in God. 

And what more, I ask you, could we need for the new 


Grace 


9 

year, with all its still unknown tasks, struggles, cares and 
sorrows, than this energy which is wholly independent of 
success or failure because it comes from the grace of God ? 

And so we will take this message with us as a watchword 
for the new year and learn more and more what it means 
for our life and work: “ My grace is sufficient for thee; for 
my strength is made perfect in weakness.” If we cling to 
that word, this year too — and perhaps this year in particular 
— will, whatever else it may bring, become a year of the 
Lord of salvation. May God help us through Christ Jesus to 
make it so! Yes, may God be with us, and may the Lord 
Jesus Christ comfort us! amen. 


FIRST INTIMATION OF THE PASSION 

(First Sunday in Lent, 1933) 

From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he 
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests 
and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying: Be it far from thee, 
Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an 
offense unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that 
be of men. 

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life 
for my sake shall find it. 

For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? — Matt. 16:21-26 

❖ 

As a Christian community we are today conscious of 
strangely conflicting emotions. We are celebrating the first 
Sunday of the Passion, and at this quiet time we should like 
to free ourselves from the many and confusing impressions 
that rush in upon us from the unsettled present; we should 
like — just because we are Christians — to be wholly recep¬ 
tive, and with our spiritual eyes and ears to absorb what 
the Passion of our Lord is meant to show us and to tell us. 

However, not only is it more difficult than it perhaps was 
in former years for us to secure the quiet and concentration 
necessary for this end, but it almost seems to us as though 
this year we had no right to it. The fact is that it is simply 
impossible for us today to accept the comfortable formula 

10 


II 


First Intimation of the Passion 

that politics have no place in the church. Such a claim may 
be permissible as long as the politics are concerned with 
trivial questions of tactics and methods, expediency and 
utility, or the little ups and downs in church life — that is, 
with matters which we nowadays leave to the discretion of 
our intellects. We can put such things away from us and 
shed them as one sheds a work garment; and it even does 
us good to do so and thus to realize that there exist matters 
and problems before which these paltry details and trivialities 
sink into their proper insignificance. 

But in the experiences through which we are just now 
passing it is obviously not a question of things which we can 
put away from us, but of something which is of importance 
to our fate and to that of our nation, something, moreover, 
with regard to which each one of us must take a con¬ 
scientious stand; and if it should happen that we were 
asked to take our stand this very day, it would be un¬ 
real for us to attempt to act as though the whole affair did 
not concern us here. 

And so this year we stand once more at the entrance to the 
Passion-tide, with all the inward unrest which troubles our 
secret souls, with all the perplexities and cares and hopes 
which we cannot and dare not leave outside, and we wonder 
whither the path of our nation is leading. 

This, then, is the conflict: the Passion-tide speaks of 
Christ’s path of suffering, and we men and women of today 
are tormented by the question of the path of our nation. 
These two paths are quite different, and it will not do to 
establish a direct relation and connection between them. 

It is false to say, as has actually been said, that because 
Christ had to suffer in order to fulfill his mission, therefore 


12 


Here Stand I! 


our nation, too, must tread the way of sorrow in order to 
reach its destination. And there is just as little validity in 
that other thesis, by which many a man is heard to swear, 
that as Christ’s path led through the cross to the crown so 
the path of our nation leads through suffering to glory. 
Such assertions are nothing more than wishful thinking and 
have nothing whatever to do with Christianity or Christ. 

The suffering of Jesus was not the result of any natural law 
and cannot be taken as the standard example of a univer¬ 
sally valid historical truth. It is true that in his suffering 
one may find confirmation of the principle that greatness 
is reached and realized only through sacrifice and self- 
denial. But we do not need Jesus’ suffering to recognize the 
truth of this principle; in order to recognize and conform to 
it a man need not be a Christian; in order to act upon it a 
nation need not even have become a Christian nation. 

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to conclude that it is a 
matter of indifference to us as the German nation whether 
we are Christians or not. Nations are living creatures with 
body and soul; they have only one life, they come into being 
and die. They come into existence in manifold ways and 
die in manifold ways; but they always and of necessity die 
when the forces which gave them life fall into decay. 

When our German nation was born, God gave it as soul 
the Christian faith. Our national development — whether 
we like the idea or not — has been inwardly based upon 
Christianity, and from the Christianity of the national soul 
have come all the forces which made our nation develop and 
grow. 

Our nation would not be our nation but for the Reforma- 


First Intimation of the Passion 13 

tion, but for the denominational schism which we often 
perhaps feel as a burden, but for the positive Christianity 
of the Lutherans and the Calvinists and the Catholics. 
Therein lives the soul of our nation, and it would literally 
be of no avail to us were we to gain the whole world and in 
so doing lose our soul. That is the real reason why there 
never has been and never will be for our German nation any 
rebirth which is not inwardly based upon a revival of the 
Christian faith. This nation — our nation — will either be 
a Christian nation or it will cease to exist. 

For that reason we can and must ask the nation’s political 
leaders to take this vital interest into account and not to be 
deluded into thinking that the question of religion can ever 
be a private matter among us. If such a mistaken policy is 
ever adopted — and we have surely been heading in that 
direction — our nation will dissolve into atoms; it will be 
denationalized and its historical existence will be at an end. 
And in thus ceasing to be, our nation would not be dying a 
natural death but would be guilty of committing suicide. 

If a German statesman in these days stands up publicly 
for the protection and preservation of the Christian churches 
he soon becomes suspect, as though he were trying to use 
God to further his aims and plans. But we, dear friends, 
as Christians and as a community, should know that a Ger¬ 
man statesman is responsible to God for not letting the 
nation entrusted to his care lose its soul and with it its life. 
So much we can and must say for the sake of righteousness 
and for the sake of the nation from which we cannot sepa¬ 
rate ourselves, since God has put us here from our birth and 
even earlier, through our parents and ancestors; and so 


14 Here Stand I! 

much we must say because we love our nation as our mother 
and do not want it to die so terrible a death. 

But — and now comes the “ but ” — we do not say all 
this in order to create the impression that with a government 
which protected and confirmed the alliance between the 
fate of the nation and the fate of the church everything 
would be as it should and we should have a guarantee of 
outward prosperity and inward recovery. We need not a 
guarantee, but an indispensable condition; not a guarantee 
because, of course, external prosperity does not depend upon 
ourselves alone. 

Just as a healthy man is not sure of his life merely because 
he is healthy, and just as he may lose his life through an 
accident or through the treachery of others, so our nation 
is not sure of its life and so our nation can lose its life through 
superior force or through the violence of others. But just 
as an intelligent man knows these contingencies and yet at 
the same time takes care of his health, so must we as a nation 
know them and yet realize and bear our responsibility for 
the health of our nation. 

But here again no government, however good and honest 
its intentions may be, can give permanent guarantees. Just 
because the inward recovery of our nation has, in accordance 
with God’s guidance through the ages, become dependent 
upon whether and how far the Christian faith is alive and 
effective in our midst — just because of that we are now 
faced here with our wholly personal responsibility — with 
the question which is being put to us as Christians and as a 
church. 

It is obvious that, both as Christians and as a church, we 
face today a unique crisis; and I am forcibly impressed with 


First Intimation of the Passion 15 

the similarity between our situation and that described in 
the gospel which we have just heard, partly from the altar 
and partly from the pulpit. Jesus has invited a confession 
of faith from his disciples: “Whom do men say that I the 
Son of man am ? . . . But whom say ye that I am ? ” And 
we are shown how, while others argued and wrangled about 
Christ’s identity, the conviction grew and was established 
among his followers that he was none other than the Mes¬ 
siah, the Son of God: “ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God.” 

The century and a half which lie behind us, those years 
in which our nation took it as a matter of course that all 
opinions should have equal rights, also showed us who men 
say that the Son of Man is, and revealed how far we as a 
nation had wandered from the gospel. But for that very 
reason this period also had its good points. It confronted us 
seriously with the question, “ Will ye also go away ? ” The 
way was certainly free; the question forced us to reflect 
and to decide. “ But who say ye that I am ? ” A profession 
of faith had to be made, and by virtue of that necessity, the 
Christian church emerged from this conflict of opinions 
stronger and more united in its views than we could have 
hoped or expected; and in the strife its creed gained new 
strength as well as new recruiting power and perhaps even 
new powers of persuasion. “Thou art Christ! ” 

We may possibly feel, therefore, as Jesus’ disciples did, 
that the cause must now go forward and that a new begin¬ 
ning has been made which cannot fail to lead to success. 
Today, too, there is no lack of confident voices; today, too, 
there is no lack of ideas and plans to utilize the favorable 
situation for the cause of Christianity. The watchword is, 


16 Here Stand I! 

“Nationality and Christianity,” and surely with a little 
skill it may be translated into fact. 

Yet now comes the real difficulty. Into this favorable 
situation come Jesus’ words about his suffering, those words 
which cut the ground from beneath all Christian propa¬ 
ganda. Peter is bitterly disappointed. He cannot and will 
not understand: “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not 
be unto thee! ” “ What! ” he seems to say, “ just when we 
have realized that thy cause is our cause, just when we 
await thy command to act, thou speakest of suffering, of 
passivity! Let him who can or will understand that! ” But 
Jesus turns resolutely away: it is Satan who speaks thus and 
opposes the divine decree of suffering with the all too human 
“No.” 

The question, dear brethren, is whether, after all, it is 
not good and whether it has not a very special purpose, that 
the present day which our nation hopes will prove the turn¬ 
ing point to bring us to a new life should force us as a Chris¬ 
tian community to realize the necessity for Christ’s Passion. 
It is good and it has its very special purpose, for it is meant 
to show us that at this turning point there lurks a tremen¬ 
dous danger, a temptation of the devil. The disciple Peter 
here stands before us as a living proof of the fact that it is 
possible for a man to profess faith in Christ and at the same 
time unwittingly and unintentionally to stand in his way. 

We Christians — we, the Christian community — can pro¬ 
fess faith in Christ and yet obstruct his way — at the very 
time, too, when we think we are serving him. At the same 
moment we stand also in the way of our German nation 
and refuse the service which we owe it. And this danger 
becomes acute the moment we as Christians oppose the suf- 


First Intimation of the Passion 17 

ferings of Jesus, the moment we as the church of Christ 
turn our minds to what is human instead of to what is divine. 

The danger is there. Viewed from the human standpoint, 
it looks as though the Christian church in our nation could 
gain much, perhaps everything. It need not tread the path 
of suffering. It can, if it follows the ways laid out for it, 
develop a powerful propaganda without even denying its 
creed. Yet what good would that be to it or to our nation ? 
“ For whosoever will save his life ” — these words are ad¬ 
dressed to the church also — “ shall lose it! ” 

That is why we Christians are today called to reflection; 
the purpose of the message of our Saviour’s Passion is to put 
us back into the place right and fitting for us. 

Peter wants to dabble in Christian politics. With “ Christ ” 
as his slogan he wants to win votes; he wants to win men and 
women who will shout hosannah to his Lord. There is no 
trickery about that. 

But take care, Peter: what is neither trickery nor magic 
may still be the work of the devil! Christ wants no heralds 
to announce his coming. He wants no frenzied enthusiasm 
for his cause and no acclaiming of his person. He treads 
the path that leads to suffering and to the cross, and his 
adherents must also tread it, following in his steps. He 
who would profess faith in him as the Christ, the Saviour 
and Redeemer, can do so in no other way than by professing 
faith in the suffering and crucified Christ; and this profes¬ 
sion of faith is valid only when it is meant as a profession of 
life. “ If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross, and follow me! ” 

We must study this profession of faith all our lives, dear 
brethren; we never come to the end of that road which we 


i8 


Here Stand I! 


call “ the imitation of Christ.” For what man denies him¬ 
self, what man reaches the point of no longer knowing and 
serving his great ego? Which of us, I ask you, carries his 
cross; which of us does not yearn to be rid of every burden 
which he is asked to bear? 

We will let ourselves be shown our place and will turn 
our eyes to him who goes before us. That — and nothing 
else — is the Christian service which our Lord wants from 
us, and with such service he carries on his work in the world 
and in our nation. 

Such service may seem paltry to us in our eagerness to do 
great deeds; it is so fine and so human to make plans and 
to achieve results. Well, we are not deprived of such plan¬ 
ning and achievement; we have opportunity and authority for 
them too in our work and in society. But we must not in¬ 
terfere with the office of the Lord Jesus Christ; we must not 
think that it is our duty to point out and to clear the way for 
him and for his church. All that is required of us is the 
obedience which follows him. 

And at the same time we must know and hold fast to the 
fact that the greatest service we can render our nation is 
that we, as a Christian community, concentrate wholly on 
this obedience, for without a revival of Christianity there can 
be no rebirth of our nation. 

So following in the steps of Christ 
Our Saviour let us go, 

And boldly, gladly, cheerfully 
Stand by him in his woe! 


AMEN. 


THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE 
THOUSAND 


(Fourth Sunday in Lent, 1933) 

After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of 
Tiberias. 

And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he 
did on them that were diseased. 

And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 

And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 

When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, 
he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? (And this 
he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.) 

Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for 
them, that every one of them may take a little. 

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is 
a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are 
they among so many? 

And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the 
place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 

And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed 
to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were sat down; and likewise of 
the fishes as much as they would. 

When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments 
that remain, that nothing be lost. 

Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the 
fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them 
that had eaten. —John 6:1-13 


❖ 

Five thousand men! Tired, hungry men, all of whom, 
animated by some kind of hope, have made the long journey 
round Lake Gennesaret in a veritable migration to Jesus, 
the man from whom emanate help and healing. In truth 
an edifying result, a visible sign of appreciation and trust. 

*9 


20 


Here Stand I! 


I cannot help thinking that in that hour Jesus’ disciples were 
joyfully, proudly and gratefully convinced that the cause was 
making progress. 

Thus far we have a situation which may perhaps be com¬ 
pared with our own today; for obviously the eyes and in¬ 
terest of many of our nation are today turning again to the 
Prophet of Nazareth and to his message — thousands from 
whose lives he had disappeared are running after him and 
seeking to re-establish contact with him, desiring to belong 
once more to his fellowship which they had left, and want¬ 
ing their children, who had hitherto grown up without 
him, to be baptized; and thousands more who bore the name 
of Christian without attaching any special significance to it 
are coming with new questions and expectations and are 
remembering that past generations found in him help in 
time of trouble and healing for their infirmities. “They 
saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.” 

Why should not we, dear brethren, look joyfully, proudly 
and gratefully on this movement and feel that Christ’s cause 
is surely making progress ? 

We feel that we too are living through a period of uni¬ 
versal importance in the history of the world, inasmuch as 
Christianity is again seeking to become a public issue in our 
nation, a goal which cannot be achieved by us as a Christian 
community simply leading our quietly happy individual 
existence. 

As disciples of Jesus we are here faced with a mission; for all 
these people surely want something, and that means that 
we must either give them to eat or ask, “ Whence shall we 
buy bread, that these may eat ? ” The modern term describ¬ 
ing this situation is, “ the problem of the masses.” 


21 


The Feeding of the Five Thousand 

But we must remember that this problem cannot be solved 
in a leisurely, profound, scientific fashion, but that it re¬ 
quires direct and immediate treatment because it concerns 
living men and women and is a matter of life and death. 
After all, the finest rescue plan is of not the slightest use if 
its carrying out takes so much time that the drowning man 
becomes a drowned man in the interval. I am thinking in 
this connection of old Father Bodelschwingh, who was 
seized with righteous impatience during the tedious prepara¬ 
tions for the East African Mission. “ Don’t be so slow,” he 
urged, “ or the people over there will be dead.” 

And so at the present time, too, all our great planning 
is of pitifully little avail. When the multitude assembled 
Philip began to calculate, but he did not get far: “ Two hun¬ 
dred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them! ” 
Where were they to get the two hundred pence, for one 
thing? 

Our situation is in no wise more promising. When we be¬ 
gin to calculate we, like Philip, are at once brought up short, 
for in our case, too, the money problem is insoluble. The 
fact that more than a thousand vicarages are empty in Prussia 
and hundreds of deacons and deaconesses have been dis¬ 
missed in Berlin alone is proof of the truth of this statement. 
It obviously serves no purpose to attack the problem of the 
masses as a question of finance and organization. 

It is indeed a great pity that such a state of affairs should 
exist, and that it should exist of all times today, when the 
potentialities of labor are greater than they have been for 
many long years, if not for centuries. As things are, however, 
our only course is unreservedly to confess our impotence and 
poverty. 


22 


Here Stand I! 

Andrew takes a more sensible attitude toward the whole 
affair than does his countryman and friend Philip; he is the 
avowed realist and reckons with the given facts: “ What have 
we got and what can we do with the means at our disposal ? ” 
Yet the result of his calculations is no less distressing: “ Five 
barley loaves and two small fishes; but what are they among 
so many ? ” Very little — too little — nothing! Just enough 
for Jesus himself and his immediate followers. “We have 
nothing left,” thinks Andrew; “ we ourselves live from hand 
to mouth.” 

And here again we look into a mirror and see our own 
reflection, for do we as a community of Jesus Christ suffer 
from a superfluity of goods? Are we so rich in Christian 
commodities — in faith and love and hope — that we could 
give away some of them to be distributed among the masses ? 
I believe that we are fortunate if we have enough faith to 
keep ourselves more or less afloat; and surely our love is in 
great straits, and of our Christian hope there remains at best 
a mythical silver streak, a fata morgana. Truly, we too have 
only five loaves and two small fishes and nothing else! What 
is that among so many? Shall the masses who are today 
bringing their hopes to Christ, to us as the Christian com¬ 
munity and church of Christ, have their hunger appeased by 
us? 

I hope, dear friends, that we still have enough feeling for 
and perception of reality to prevent our saying thoughtlessly, 
“ Yes, they may come; everything is ready.” If we did that 
we might share the fate of that church at Laodicea on which 
the judgment was passed: “ Thou sayest, I am rich, and in¬ 
creased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest 


The Feeding of the Five Thousand 23 

not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked! ” 

It is saddening to see people act as though the chief thing 
today were to institute a large-scale propaganda scheme for 
Christianity, as though the five thousand must at all costs be¬ 
come ten, twenty or a hundred thousand. In so believing it 
is easy to work ourselves into a state of Christian ecstasy and 
to exclaim: “ The cause is making progress! We can see that 
it is making progress! ” — as though there were no disappoint¬ 
ment looming threateningly in the background; as though 
we had not sooner or later to answer the question, “ Whence 
shall we buy bread, that these may eat ? ” ... And then our 
poverty becomes obvious. Indeed, we are much poorer than 
we admit to ourselves. 

We dream of the sustaining power and the comfort of our 
Christian religion; we swear by the superiority of the view of 
life taught us by the gospel. But when it comes down to hard 
facts, when it is a question of not doubting in sorrow but 
of keeping our faith, of not becoming bitter in tribulation, 
but of cultivating love, of not flinching in face of death 
but of glorying in hope — then all our dreamed-of wealth 
vanishes. And when we are confronted with one who would 
like to believe but cannot, one who needs our love, and we 
cannot help him in his despair and seek in vain for a word of 
genuine comfort — are not we, I ask you, ourselves living 
from hand to mouth ? 

Even we pastors — perhaps we pastors most of all! Even 
in our Protestant church, I think, the old superstition is still 
alive that we pastors, to a certain extent because of our office, 
must necessarily have a stronger faith, more love and a 


24 Here Stand I! 

firmer hope than other Christian men and women. But our 
one advantage is that, because of our office, we are daily 
faced with the task of feeding the multitude, that we are 
daily obliged to ask the question, “Whence shall we buy 
bread ? ” And therefore the poverty and wretchedness of 
our Christianity comes home to us, therefore every sermon 
means a fight with the tempter: “ Five loaves and two small 
fishes: but what is that among so many? ” Yes, perhaps 
not even five loaves and two small fishes; perhaps the bread 
will turn out to be stone! 

And now come the many, now comes the multitude with 
some kind of confused yearning, with some sort of vague 
hope. . . . 

Dear brethren! Since I have been a minister of the gospel 
I know what Luther meant, and every day reminds me of 
it. When we are faced with the problem of the masses we 
all know it with those two disciples of old, Philip and 
Andrew: “With all our vaunted Christianity, we are beg¬ 
gars”; and at the critical moment we stand with empty 
hands and have nothing adequate to offer. “ The truth is, 
we are beggars! ” 

It must be thus. We must look this fact in the face and 
bow to it. It is not — as we might think — mere unlucky 
chance that today of all times, when the problem of the 
masses is becoming acute for us, the external resources of our 
church should be exhausted and the inner springs of Chris¬ 
tianity almost dried up. Rather is it God’s carefully planned 
guidance and divine dispensation. He it is who upsets all 
our plans and calculations; he it is who reveals as impossi¬ 
bilities all the possibilities of which we dream. It is Jesus 
himself who asks the disciples the question which none of 


The Feeding of the Five Thousand 25 

them can answer: “ Whence shall we buy bread, that these 
may eat ? ” It is he who damps their optimism and ties 
their hands, so that they stand perplexed and inactive at the 
moment when an irretrievable opportunity is passing. 

It must be thus; and to him who has eyes to see and ears 
to hear this gospel gives an answer to his question, “ Why ? ” 
The reason is that Jesus Christ wishes to do his work him¬ 
self: “ For he himself knew what he would do! ” Today, 
too, he knows what he will do. 

But first of all we must leave the way clear for him. Never 
must we let it look as though his disciples have something 
to offer the hungry masses; never must we let it seem as 
though the church has at its disposal mysterious forces with 
which it can do as it likes! The disciples must appear be¬ 
fore the multitude with empty hands and must invite them 
to the meal — and none of them knows whether in so doing 
he is making a fool of himself or not, and each of them is 
entirely dependent upon what Jesus does. 

Thus —and thus alone — it must be with us. We have 
nothing to produce, nothing with which to appease the hun¬ 
ger of the multitude. Nay, more, perhaps our last resource, 
which could be misused or even misunderstood as a piece 
of self-advertisement on the part of the church — works of 
Christian charity and church welfare work as they have 
hitherto been known — perhaps this too is being taken from 
us so that we may be quite poor and quite empty-handed; 
so that it may be visible to all eyes that we Christians are 
nothing ourselves, that we Christians have nothing ourselves, 
that we Christians do nothing ourselves. We live by a 
miracle, and this miracle is called Christ; he is everything, he 
has everything, he does everything. 


2 6 


Here Stand I! 

That is the testimony which we as Christians owe to those 
who today come to us with their hopes and problems and 
expectations. We are not concerned with the question of 
how these crowds of troubled men and women stand with 
regard to Christianity and the Christian church; our duty is 
to see that they meet the miracle called Christ. 

Such a meeting — I call it a miracle in very truth! Surely 
it is a miracle that the Christ of the Gospels is alive — is 
alive today; that he carries on his work — and carries it on 
today; that he meets men and women — and meets them 
today; and that he feeds the hungry, and feeds them today, 
in our own day and age! 

See, dear brethren, does not the real pity lie in the fact 
that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ here in the church, 
that here we take it almost as a matter of course to call him 
our Lord and to pray to him and to hearken to his words, 
but as soon as we are outside again, what a different world, 
what a totally different reality we are in! Suddenly the 
miracle seems to be extinguished: Christ — our Lord ? Now 
— here ? Is he not worlds away and separated from us by 
aeons of time ? 

Is it not simply that the force of circumstances compels 
us once more to shape our lives by our own strength and, 
if need be, to share what we are and have and do? And 
have we not done as much as we can if while so doing we 
preserve the golden mean between love of self and love of 
our neighbor ? Possibly — but this halved love will satisfy 
no one’s need, and there is no miracle about this breaking 
of bread; nor has the Lord Jesus Christ anything to do with 
it. We have left him in the church, you see; we have 
banished him from the present and its reality. How shall 


The Feeding of the Five Thousand 27 

he meet us and how shall we bear testimony to others con¬ 
cerning a miracle which we ourselves know only as a sacred 
story heard in church! Yes, there lies the real pity of it. 

The fact is that outside the church service we no longer 
seriously believe that Christ the Lord really and truly re¬ 
lieves distress and appeases hunger. We no longer dare to 
take his words, “ Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” as meant for us per¬ 
sonally and for our personal acquaintances and friends, and 
to pass them on. 

In the metaphor of today’s gospel, we no longer trouble 
really to take and distribute the bread which Jesus breaks 
and offers to us, because we are convinced beforehand that 
it won’t go around. What use has the man or woman of the 
twentieth century for the Redeemer of sinners, for the cruci¬ 
fied and resurrected Christ, for the call to repentance and to 
faith? These things appease no one’s hunger; and so we 
turn to our own particular creed and, if need be, change 
it into a sort of Christian sugar-icing, call it “ view of life,” 
“ welfare work,” “ politics,” “ ethics,” “ religion ” and what 
not. But the miracle does not take place, however longingly 
we wait for it and look for it; and no one’s hunger is ap¬ 
peased. 

I think, dear friends, that we now begin to see clearly 
what today’s gospel is trying to teach us. The men and 
women around us are again asking for Christ, loudly or 
softly; the hunger for God is making itself felt. It seems 
to be time that the miracle of the feeding of the five thou¬ 
sand be repeated. But it is no miracle that this miracle does 
not happen, so long as we offer the people the sugary Chris¬ 
tian confection of our own concoction. Surely we must 


28 


Here Stand I! 


dare to bring them the bread which Jesus himself breaks, 
the simple, unaffected message of his word and work, of 
his life and suffering, of his death and resurrection — and 
nothing more. That will assuredly seem little — too little 
— to us at the moment: “ What is that among so many? ” 
But we must not take heed of such objections and scruples: 
we must dare to obey and to be Christ’s helpers. It is he who 
must perform the miracle; and he does perform it when we 
take his message seriously and obey him. 

When Christ fed the five thousand the hunger of all was 
appeased and more than enough was left for the disciples; 
today, too, the hunger of all shall be appeased — all who 
hear and believe his message and all who pass it on in faith. 
For in the word which he offers us he gives us himself as 
the living Lord, as the miracle on which we live: “ I am 
the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; 
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” 

Lord, evermore give us this bread! 


AMEN. 


WE WOULD SEE JESUS! 

( 'Jubilate: Third Sunday after Easter, 1933) 

And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the 
feast. 

The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and 
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. 

Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. 

And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man 
should be glorified. 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Unless a corn of wheat fall into the ground 
and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 

He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world 
shall keep it unto life eternal. 

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also 
my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. 

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this 
hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. — John 12:20-27 

❖ 

Rejoice! Make a joyful noise, all ye lands! 

Yes, that is what we feel like doing, for outside we see 
the verdant, blossoming spring, and around us we see the 
people of our nation awakening; and in spite of all its storm 
and stress, in spite of all its effervescence and fermentation, 
that awakening tells us that we are still a young nation 
which does not wish to be drawn into the collapse of 
Western civilization: we wish to live! May God speed us 
on our way! 

And again I say, Rejoice! We have left Easter behind us 
and are now in the festive season of the Christian church. 
The message of life has again been spread abroad — of life 
that is stronger than the world and than death. 

2-9 


30 Here Stand I! 

And so we welcome the young Christians who are today 
entering the fellowship of our church. You are doing right, 
young men and women, for here you will find a living 
Master with power over life and death; and we can tell 
you that it is worth your while to make his acquaintance 
and that it is a joy to serve him. Therefore to you also we 
would say, Godspeed! 

In Christendom, too, there are signs of a returning spring. 
When I say that, I am not thinking of the lively and even 
passionate effort to transform the Protestant church into a 
state church which is being made today; I am thinking 
rather that the desire to know Jesus, to get into touch with 
him, to be guided by him, is again making itself felt — even 
in the case of those who have hitherto had little or no con¬ 
tact with him! “ We would see Jesus! ” And shall we not 
say Godspeed to this also ? 

We are very quick and willing to respond when it is a 
question of welcoming the spring. We would much rather 
sing “ Glory to God ” than “ Lord, have mercy upon us,” 
and like the superficial creatures that we are we tend to 
take the bud for the fruit and the will for the deed. And 
have we not a good right to do so? After all, everything 
which is to become anything must in some way or other 
begin with the bud — with good will, with questioning, 
as in the case of the Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for 
the feast and now wished to see Jesus. 

What prospects, what possibilities, are opened up when 
men really begin to question and to desire! He who utilizes 
this moment skillfully must surely be able to make some¬ 
thing of such a friendly and well intentioned state of mind. 

Well, dear brethren, in that case Jesus Christ for one may 


We Would See Jesus! 31 

be considered to have set about the matter in a very blunder¬ 
ing fashion. In his reply to the Greeks there is not the 
slightest trace of wise pedagogics, of that progression from 
the simple to the difficult which first acknowledges the exist¬ 
ence of the good will and then proceeds gradually to mold 
that good will into the right shape, until in the end it de¬ 
sires to do what it ought to! In the case which we are 
discussing the words concerning the cross are spoken ab¬ 
ruptly, without preamble or disguise. They are the harsh 
answer to a mild question; and what the moment before 
was hope and seemed a possibility is now suddenly dead 
and extinguished. “ Frost fell in the summer night. . . 
There is no way of getting past this hard fact which lies 
like a stone in our path; we are bound to stumble over it 
— and we are meant to stumble over it. 

The incident presented in today’s gospel is no isolated 
one. It is the same in every case where men come question- 
ingly to Jesus for guidance from him. Whether it is the 
rich young man who was so pure in heart that Jesus loved 
him, whether it is the disciples with their great expectations 
and their hopes of a Messiah who would restore their nation, 
whether it is a Nicodemus or some other learned man in¬ 
terested in philosophy or theology — always the answer is 
quite unpedagogically harsh, so harsh that it leaves no room 
for development and growth and maturing such as we 
should like; always it is the preaching of the cross: it begins 
with the death of something and not with good will, with 
the corn of wheat and not with the bud. 

Jesus encouraged no man to walk through life continually 
shedding what is imperfect and bad and faithfully and con¬ 
scientiously developing into a really devout man; but he 


32 Here Stand I! 

speaks of conversion, of imitation, of self-denial and rebirth. 
And all these things mean the cross, mean dying. There 
is definite plan in these things. That is why we cannot 
get past them. That is why we are reminded of them even 
now, in the midst of this festive Easter season, lest we should 
imagine that the resurrection has rendered the cross value¬ 
less and superfluous. No; the cross still is forceful, and it is 
the only answer given by Jesus to the seeker after truth. 

When we look closely we find that we are faced with a 
situation which is hopeless from the human point of view. 
The people are asking for Jesus, the young communicants 
must be — and perhaps even wish to be — brought to him. 
But even if we were better judges of mankind and more 
skillful spiritual leaders than we are we should still be 
faced with a problem which we simply cannot solve. 

Our text indicates as much in a small point which we find 
incomprehensible at the first hearing. The Greeks in ques¬ 
tion apply to Philip; Philip does not know what to do and 
tells Andrew; finally both disciples go to Jesus, who utters 
the hard words about the corn of wheat and about hating 
one’s life and about following him unconditionally. There 
is, you see, no conciliatory leading up to the point, such as 
the ordinary human being would expect; it is simply impos¬ 
sible for us pedagogically to utilize the apparently favor¬ 
able situation in a way that might give us reasonable hopes 
of understanding his meaning. 

The fact is that it is not a matter of understanding: how 
could any man have understood the words about the cross ? 
And he who believed he did, assuredly misunderstood them. 
Faith in Christ can neither be taught nor learned, because 
all teaching and all learning come to grief on the mystery 


We Would See Jesus! 33 

of his cross, which inevitably remains a stumbling block 
even to the most devout will and folly even to the most 
shrewd reasoning. 

Christian faith — and this is what distinguishes it from 
any religion which can be taught and learned — is a choice 
which is made in the solitude of the personal meeting with 
Christ — we may also say, in the personal meeting with his 
words about the cross. Today, to be sure, it is considered 
modern to talk about the faith of a nation and about the 
faith of our nation; we should, however, speak more hon¬ 
estly about religion, so as not to obscure its supreme impor¬ 
tance. And this importance lies precisely in the fact that 
nobody can take this choice from me; nobody can even make 
it easier for me, or act as an intermediary for me. 

Well, perhaps it is now becoming clear to us how little 
reason we have for raising a song of joy merely because 
around us or even within us there has begun a questioning 
and seeking. For as yet we have no idea on which side the 
decision will fall; we do not know whether the desire to see 
Jesus will end with the cry, “ Crucify him! ” or with the 
confession of faith, “ I am willing to be crucified! ” We have 
not that knowledge, and so all our springtime joy is prema¬ 
ture, and all this yearning and wishing and hoping spell 
perplexity and fear for us, who should be helping to create 
real occasion for rejoicing. 

How often am I told: “ It must surely be a constant source 
of joy to you to teach so many young people who come with 
honest good will.” Yes, indeed: “We would see Jesus!” 
Of course it is a joy, of course it gives me joy. But, dear 
brethren, and you, dear parents, when we realize what is in¬ 
volved — that it is not a case of their being educated unto 


34 Here Stand I! 

faith but of their choosing a faith — then our joy soon dis¬ 
appears, then perplexity and fear begin, and then, whether 
we are parents or pastors, we see ourselves as part of that 
company of questioners and seekers after truth, we see our¬ 
selves as men and women to all of whom Jesus addresses 
the same words, in the same way, and all of whom are con¬ 
fronted with the fact and challenge of the cross. 

Our task, therefore, is not to intercede, not to act the part 
of mediators, but rather to stand aside and let Jesus himself 
speak, so that those who seek him may meet him and make 
their choice. We are really only in the way with our good 
will, because our good will says “ improvement ” where 
Jesus means “ conversion,” “ development ” where he speaks 
of “ rebirth,” “ life ” where he demands “ death.” 

From our point of view this situation may seem hope¬ 
less and quite beyond our comprehension. But is it im¬ 
proved, I wonder, if we join the ranks of those who seek 
and question, those who desire only to hear for themselves 
what Jesus is saying? 

As a matter of fact, dear brethren, Jesus has no message 
for Philip and Andrew other than that he has for the Greeks 
who sought him; he must say to those who know him and 
who feel that they are his disciples exactly what he says to 
those who do not know him and who have not yet come 
to him. And so he confronts us, who have long regarded 
ourselves as Christians, who were confirmed and received into 
his fellowship years ago, with the same demand he makes of 
the young and the old who now wish to come to him. And 
this demand is: “ The corn of wheat must die; this life must 
be counted as nothing; he who wishes to serve me must fol¬ 
low me! ” 


We Would See Jesus! 35 

This being so, it is not possible for us to escape the edict 
of the cross; it is not possible for us to arrange this dying so 
that we are finished with it once and for all. We deceive 
ourselves if we think that we could leave the great conver¬ 
sion behind us and, now that the Good Friday of our lives 
is past, walk serenely in the Easter light of the new life. No; 
Christ’s words about dying are still meant for us, and they 
are meant for us again and again. If our Lord Jesus Christ 
says, “ Repent! ” he commands that the whole life of his 
followers be a continuous repentance. Over all our actions 
stands God’s no, and in the fact that we oppose this no with 
our yes lies the real trouble, the sin which separates us from 
God and makes our position — if we have the sense to see it 
— so hopeless. 

The words concerning the cross are said to us, and Jesus 
himself sets his cross before us, so that we may be forced to 
make a choice, and so that we may also be enabled to say no 
to our actions and our life, and thus cease resisting God. 

Then there will be room for God’s grace to enter in; then, 
after our actions and life are condemned by his no and 
when we agree to this verdict with our own no — God will 
utter his yes to us, and Jesus’ promise will come home to 
each of us personally: “ If the corn of wheat die, it bringeth 
forth much fruit. He that hateth his life in this world shall 
keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, him will my 
Father honor.” 

And so there comes to us a new hope. But it comes only 
when we have buried our old hopes. For between this new 
hope and us stands the cross, stand Jesus’ hard words about 
dying. And the cross and these words look dark and for¬ 
bidding to us as long as we stand before them seeking and 


Here Stand I! 


36 

questioning — as long as we do that, they mark the end of 
all our hopes and wishes and powers. For to all of these 
things God says no! And only when we bow to this no do 
we hear the yes of God’s grace and see the other side in the 
light of the promise: much fruit, eternal life, honor from 
God! 

Then we sing a new song of joy; and this new song does 
not take its ring of joyful confidence from our pious yearn¬ 
ing and seeking after Jesus, but from what seems to us a 
stumbling block and foolishness, and is yet the power of 
God: from the preaching of the cross! amen. 


ALL MEN 


(Rogation Sunday: Fifth Sunday after Easter, 1933) 

I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and 
giving of thanks, be made for all men; 

For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and 
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. 

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of 
the truth. 

For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man 
Christ Jesus; 

Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 

— 7 Tim. 2:1-6 


❖ 

This is an exhortation, and it must be admitted that as a 
rule we are not exactly eager to lend an ear to exhortations. 
Really to listen to an exhortation and take it in requires 
quietness and a special attitude of inward preparedness, and 
if these are absent — as we remember from our experiences 
with our children or from memories of our own childhood 
— the best intentioned exhortation is simply thrown away. 

There is no doubt that the apostle is tremendously in 
earnest when he “ first of all ” desires that Christians shall 
pray for all men, that they include every man in their prayers 
and supplications, their intercessions and thanks. Yes, how 
earnest he is about it, and how utterly undiplomatic is the 
sentiment underlying his demand! I mean to say: Paul asks 
us to pray for all men, not in order to induce us to pray for 
at least a good many men. That he is really thinking of 

37 


38 Here Stand I! 

prayer for all at once becomes clear when he names kings 
and those in authority as people who must be included. 
For here he is referring not to a Christian government and 
not even to a government which is neutral in religious mat¬ 
ters, but to the Emperor Nero and his counselors. 

Paul is imposing on the Christian community the exacting 
duty of including its avowed enemies and persecutors in its 
prayers. To understand these words fully, therefore, we 
should have to be living today as Christians in Russia and 
not in Germany. We must first translate them into our own 
language and into our own situation; and then we are re¬ 
minded of other words, those uttered by Jesus in his Sermon 
on the Mount, which say the same thing in terms which 
everyone can understand: “ Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for 
them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” That 
and nothing less is what Paul means when he exhorts us 
here to pray for all men, and therein lies the whole impor¬ 
tance and the whole irksomeness of his exhortation. 

Is the hour quiet enough, I wonder, and is our inward pre¬ 
paredness great enough for us to give ear and to hear? We 
can scarcely answer this question offhand in the affirmative. 

Undoubtedly the original idea of this “ rogation ” or “ sup¬ 
plication ” Sunday was to mark the threshold between the 
festive Easter season and the period preceding Pentecost, to 
provide us opportunity to gain the quietness necessary for 
reflection upon the thought that all prayer in the name of the 
living Lord must be prayer for the coming of his Spirit and 
its effectual working in our lives. 

But of course, when all is said and done, the church year 
unfolds quietly and unobtrusively, reminding us once a week 


All Men 


39 

at most of its existence. And its voice is easily drowned, be¬ 
cause other, louder voices are constantly forcing themselves 
upon our attention. And, speaking quite generally, the pres¬ 
ent moment is possibly unfavorable for any kind of listening. 
At the best of times we are ready to listen only so long as what 
we hear coincides with our own opinion; but today we are all 
more or less crammed full of passionate, burning desires, of 
hopes or even of fears; and the inclination to see in our neigh¬ 
bor anything more than the mere ally of our wishes or the 
mere opponent of our will is almost wholly wanting. Yes, 
this request that we “ first of all ” make room in our prayers 
for all men — for all, even for those who are our enemies and 
do us wrong — is not without a certain comic element for 
the man who lives wholly in the present and who knows 
that what is wanted today is clear-cut decision and not com¬ 
promise, separation and not concordat. 

Today we like to talk optimistically of the new fellowship 
of the nation. But it is becoming more and more evident 
that even this new fellowship is such that it not only binds but 
at the same time divides, and that it signifies not only union 
but also demarcation and separation. Does it not strike you 
as truly laughable and grotesque — and now for once I must 
quite openly call things by their names — that a nazi Storm- 
trooper who has been shot and crippled should pray for 
Severing, and vice versa that an official who has been dis¬ 
missed because of his origin should pray for the men of the 
national government? Impossible, we say; and yet if we 
say that we only express the fact that we cannot face the 
command of Jesus and the exhortation of Paul. 

Thus it is clear that we have little reason to interpret the 
call for the church, which is today heard on all sides, simply 


40 Here Stand I! 

as the voice of reviving faith. Nevertheless, we may be glad 
of it, for it may be that here we have a dawning possibility; 
it may be that this calling will be followed by a listening 
which will hear God’s answer. But this much is certain: 
God’s answer will in every case prove irksome; it will in every 
case reduce our passions to nought; and then and only then 
will it be possible to decide whether this movement is truly a 
movement toward God or whether it will turn away from 
him in vexation. 

Our nation as a whole has not yet reached the crossroads; 
the choice has still to be made. One sometimes has the im¬ 
pression that the need for the choice has not yet been seen. 

We Protestants are at present in the midst of a large-scale 
reconstruction of our church. The newspapers devote col¬ 
umns to it, and the forces which are urging it forward are 
— we may surely assume — animated by honest purpose and 
by contagious and irresistible enthusiasm. 

Among many sections of our people the hope has sprung 
up that there will now be a new understanding between our 
nation and the Christian church, between our nation and 
God! And we hope with all our heart that through the move¬ 
ment now developing in our church obstacles will be swept 
away and the way made clear. But we must not expect more; 
we must not act as though we needed only the right church 
in order to lead the whole nationally awakened German 
people through a wide-open door into the kingdom of 
God. 

The truth is that every one of us without exception must 
pass through the strait gate of repentance and faith; every one 
of us must stand before the One who is the Mediator between 
God and men — the man Christ Jesus. And there we have 


All Men 41 

the stumbling block. For in his sight neither what we regard 
as our rights, nor our will and desire, nor our ardor and 
passion are of any value. He wishes to destroy all these 
things, and he does destroy them, by uttering God’s message 
of redemption and forgiveness, of new obedience and perfect 
love. That is the point at which it will be decided whether 
our nation, which has begun to seek the church, will let itself 
be found by God. And God grant that this whole young 
church movement may not pass by the one and only Mediator 
and so decide against God! 

As far as we are concerned, however, the matter does not 
end with this pious wish. Now we see the responsibility 
which we as a Christian community, as an evangelical church, 
have to bear and to fulfill at this moment. 

I mean to say, we are not disinterested or only inwardly 
interested spectators. On the contrary, the Lord Jesus Christ 
has founded his community and set it in the midst of the 
nations — in our nation too — so that it may proclaim him 
the sole Mediator, so that any man who inquires after God 
and any nation which begins to seek God may meet him, the 
Christ of God, and not pass him by. 

The result of this meeting is not ours to determine; but it is 
incumbent upon us to see that the meeting takes place, and 
takes place in such a way that the holy and gracious will of 
God is revealed. “ God will have all men to be saved and 
to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” If today there is 
an inquiring and a seeking after God — and there is, we 
can all hear and see it for ourselves — then God is seeking 
us and asking us what message we are proclaiming; then he 
wishes us to testify concerning the Lord Jesus Christ so 
loudly, so clearly and so plainly that all this inquiring and 


42 Here Stand I! 

seeking must explain itself to him and must render an ac¬ 
count of itself to him. 

And now please do not think that this is a matter for pastors 
and theologians, or should be such. We are not concerned 
here with ideas, for they are too colorless, nor with words, for 
they do not penetrate; but we are concerned with the fact 
that in the midst of all the questioning and the seeking the 
community of Jesus exists as a fellowship of men and women 
who are not governed by their own wishes and passions but 
by the Spirit and will of God, and who thus become a stum¬ 
bling block to the people in our midst who are beginning to 
inquire about the church and to seek God. 

We can now become quite practical, for we are at the point 
where, it seems to me, the exhortation of Paul really comes 
home to us in full force — the exhortation which bids us 
“ first of all ” pray for all men, regardless of enmity and 
friendship, of sympathy and antipathy. 

The community of Jesus Christ must give expression to the 
fact that God will have all men saved. That does not mean 
that the love preached and practiced here is fundamentally 
weakness which hopelessly confuses good and evil. No, the 
love of Christ is a holy, judicial love in whose presence evil 
cannot exist, and the goodness of God works repentance in 
him who sees this love in #ie Lord Jesus Christ. Here we are 
all pardoned only after we have been condemned, and saved 
only after judgment has been passed upon us. And that is 
the very thing which makes it impossible for us to judge and 
to condemn; that is the very thing which makes us know for 
a certainty that God wishes to give his salvation to all men. 

We cannot set up dividing walls within the community of 
Christ; we cannot enforce human claims within the commu- 


All Men 43 

nity of Christ; we cannot cultivate fanaticism and passion 
within the community of Christ. If we did so, we should be 
opposing God’s jurisdiction and sacrificing his grace; and 
we should be betraying our function — the only one we have 
— for we could not become the stumbling block which would 
help the seeker after God to find Christ. 

A community which lets itself be controlled by human 
motives and aims, though these may be of the noblest and 
best, no longer has any impulsive force as a community of 
Christ, for it lacks the stumbling block over which all are 
meant to fall and thus be brought to reason, so that God can 
have mercy upon all men. 

And that is just the point. That is why the community of 
Christ has only to fulfill the charge laid upon it by its Lord, 
and in so doing fulfill the will of God. It has to testify con¬ 
cerning God’s jurisdiction to which it bows, and it does this 
by neither calculating nor judging. It has to bear witness to 
God’s grace by which it lives, and it does this by exercising 
love toward all the men and women with whom it comes into 
contact, toward Christians and infidels and Jews. It exercises 
this love as a prayer, as supplication, intercession and thanks¬ 
giving for all. 

To work toward the fulfilling of Christ’s charge is to live 
the quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty of 
which Paul speaks. We know the phrase from the beautiful 
prayer of St. Chrysostom, and I am probably not the only 
one here who has found these words a “ rock of offense ”! 
These words ought to be a stumbling block to us and so force 
us to pause and to reflect. They mean that obedience to the 
will of its Lord lifts Christ’s community out of the unrest of 
human passions and the turmoil of human love and hate; 


Here Stand I! 


44 

they represent a new relation of peace between God and men. 
It is more important, however, that we act upon this knowl¬ 
edge than that we merely know it. Even in our community 
there are men and women who have become lonely, who 
doubt God and men and are at odds with their fate because 
they feel exiled and outcast. Should not we as Christians 
find our way to them ? And is it not our duty, as a testimony 
to the will of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus to 
become a stumbling block to those, in particular, who want 
the church only because of earthly hopes and national desires ? 
“God will have all men to be saved and to come unto a 
knowledge of the truth! ” 

Yes, we have a duty as a Christian community; and in 
order that it may be fulfilled let us hearken to Paul’s exhorta¬ 
tion as addressed to ourselves, so that we may “ first of all ” 
give to all men the love which we owe them, the love which 
can even pray for them. amen. 


THE PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN 

{Harvest Thanksgiving, 1933) 

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man 
brought forth plentifully. 

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no 
room where to bestow my fruits? 

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; 
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 
years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of 
thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. 

— Lu\e 12:15-21 


❖ 

For the first time our German nation joins with us in cele¬ 
brating the harvest thanksgiving of Protestant Christendom 
as an official national festival, as the “ German Peasant’s Day.” 

This is undoubtedly a significant event, and its happening 
is not by mere chance. We are reminded that we as a nation 
have begun to remember the foundations of our existence, 
that after a period of imaginary independence we are ruefully 
returning to the bonds which are imposed upon us, whether 
we like them or not, and which we cannot cast off without 
ourselves perishing. “ While the earth remaineth, seedtime 
and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and 
day and night, shall not cease.” 

It is a law imposed upon the earth by God that the soil 

45 


46 Here Stand I! 

shall give men food, but only when we work for that food in 
the sweat of our brow. And that is true of this divine law 
which is true of all God’s laws: they are over us and we can 
never disregard them with impunity. 

“ A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth.” I am thinking in this connection of the 
classic story about the king whose touch turned everything 
to gold and who was thus brought to the verge of a miserable 
death by starvation. Verily, according to the will of God 
the Creator, a man’s life consisteth in his daily bread which 
must be wrested from the soil again and yet again. We are 
all actually dependent upon the man who tills the soil; our 
lives are literally in the hands of the farmer, the nobility of 
whose calling lies in the fact that he is appointed by God to 
give our nation its daily bread. That is what gives the 
countryman his standing in the national life; that is what 
gives him as a member of the working classes his special mis¬ 
sion and responsibility, his special value and merit. And 
we are glad that this fact is today again being plainly and 
emphatically recognized, and that in this way a primeval 
decree of God is again being honored by us. We also hope 
that this discovery will not end with the solemn proclamation 
of this day, but that our nation and its leaders may succeed in 
evolving from the clash of interests and the disintegrated 
elements of the social structure a genuine, serviceable union 
of the various social classes, such as we yearn for in our inner¬ 
most hearts and such as we think we already see in its early 
stages. 

Surely, then, it is not a matter of indifference whether the 
peasantry can carry out its service to the social body with joy 
and confidence, or whether it lives under the constant pres- 


The Parable of the Rich Man 47 

sure of worry and impending despair which must paralyze 
it. 

On the other hand, it is not enough merely to give each 
social class what is its due and so create the preliminary con¬ 
ditions for a healthy organic national life. We are happy to 
have rediscovered a forgotten truth, to have learned again that 
we are not free, unattached individuals, but are bound up 
with one another and dependent upon one another in mani¬ 
fold ways. We again feel ourselves to be created beings, men 
and women who are not simply what we should like to be 
but what we are obliged to be because of a bond which is 
imposed upon us and is an integral part of our being. Once 
more we have come to regard profession and social standing, 
race and nationality as important facts which make ines¬ 
capable demands upon us. 

And so we have grown accustomed to talk of the redis¬ 
covery of the order of creation, of the recovered first article 
of faith: “ I believe that God created me.” That knowledge 
has come upon us like a deliverance, nay, like a redemption. 
We perceive for the first time how narrow was the prison yard 
round and round which our beloved ego walked. Now the 
gates have been pushed open; beyond them we see a multi¬ 
tude of duties which we are called upon to perform, and we 
go to them with the clear conscience which comes from the 
rediscovered truth that these tasks have been set us and we 
simply cannot escape from them. 

In the spiritual revolution which is beginning to take place 
throughout our nation we hear a divine call, which demands 
new action from us. And somehow our new role seems to us 
quite obvious. We believe that in what is happening around 
us today we can read what we have to do, as plainly as the 


48 Here Stand I! 

conviction came home, after brief deliberation, to the farmer 
in the gospel story: “ I must build new and larger barns in 
order to house the fruits of my harvest. That is clearly what 
I must do at this time, and then I need not fear the future! ” 
The man was perfectly right — and yet he was making a fatal 
mistake; for he thought further: “Soul, thou hast now 
enough for years to come; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be 
happy!” 

Dear brethren! We today are in a similarly dangerous 
position: we have grasped the task of the moment; we see 
quite correctly what has been neglected and what must now 
be done. But we, too, think further and say to ourselves: 
“ What we do today must contain a guarantee for the fu¬ 
ture.” We are returning to the divine plan; we are putting 
back in its rightful place the article of faith which deals with 
the creation. And when God’s order is restored, when each 
social class and each individual is again in the proper place, 
the future of our nation cannot but be assured. 

But as a matter of fact, by this line of reasoning — from 
knowledge which is correct in itself and from a desire and 
action which are justified in themselves — we are creating 
a romantic delusion, an utterly untrustworthy illusion! In 
reasoning thus we fail to realize that the order of creation can¬ 
not be restored; for if it is true that we have destroyed it and 
feel that we must now go back to it (and this is certainly 
true), it is also true that God himself has destroyed it and 
refuses to allow us to go back to it. 

The gates of Paradise do not open again and before them 
stands the angel with the flaming sword. Between the will 
of God the Creator and our desire there yawns an abyss, and 
when we try to cross it we are swallowed up; for there a divine 


The Parable of the Rich Man 49 

law comes into force and proves our undoing. “ The wages 
of sin is death! ” Death! 

Hence we can no longer base any hope of security on the 
claim that we belong to God’s creation, nor is the existence of 
our nation guaranteed by the fact that it is remembering the 
divine order. God does not do us the favor of standing surety 
for our desires. We cannot present him with a bill, saying: 
“We have done our part and restored the order which was 
destroyed; now we expect the quid pro quo which is due us! ” 

Our lives are set in the creation which has fallen and broken 
away from God. We live under the curse of sin and under the 
law of death. And so all security becomes a dream and a 
delusion. We may dream this dream for a while, we may 
cherish this delusion for a time; but confronted with the fact 
of death the deception becomes obvious and then indeed we 
understand that we have been fools. 

If we open our eyes and do not deceive ourselves, we need 
not fall into such a fatal error. The sentence of death which 
God pronounces on his own creation rings often and clearly 
enough in our ears; the uncertainty of our human existence, 
nay more, the uncertainty even of our national existence, is 
brought home day after day to our minds. 

We could and we should know something of the funda¬ 
mental uncertainty to which all created things are heir; we 
could and we should know of the deadly rift that runs 
through the whole of nature; we could and we should ac¬ 
tually realize for ourselves that all so-called trust in God 
which is no more than a belief in the created world and its 
ordinances is a highly dubious affair and would inevitably 
make us spiritually bankrupt in the end. 

It would be a calamity for our nation if the present up- 


50 Here Stand I! 

heaval should result in nothing but a new natural piety which 
today and tomorrow enthusiastically cries, “ God is with us! ” 
and at the first big disappointment changes its watchword 
and with equal passion shouts, “ There is no God! ” This 
danger has, at the moment at least, not been overcome; the 
awakening German nation has only recently stumbled upon 
God’s ordinances in the course of its religious reflections, and 
it is still hoping to assure its future and to come to an under¬ 
standing with God by complying with these ordinances. 
And so we have celebrated the “ Day of German Labor ” 
and the “ Day of German Youth and so we are today cele¬ 
brating the “ Day of the German Peasant.” 

All this may be good and useful and necessary. But our 
nation has not yet met again the living God himself who is 
ruler over all those ordinances; it is not yet conscious that even 
over those ordinances hang the judgment of God and his 
sentence of death. When we realize that, when we know 
the living God as well as his ordinances, then our natural 
trust in God, our faith in the purpose of the world and in 
the harmony of creation, fail hopelessly, and we stand as 
fallen sinners who are worthy only of death and to whom 
no wealth in the created world can be of the slightest avail. 
Then the despised word “ grace ” again receives a meaning; 
yes, “ grace ” becomes the word on which our life depends, 
because it is the only word which is still of value before the 
judgment seat of God. 

It is not we, however, who speak this word, nor does the 
world of created things. That God is gracious to us is some¬ 
thing which we cannot deduce either from our own lives or 
from the history of our nation. As in the case of the rich 
man, in the moment of supreme good fortune God may 


The Parable of the Rich Man 51 

stretch out his hand in anger against us; this lesson we learned 
from our nation’s experience twenty years ago. 

The grace of God comes to us only in one person and that 
one person is Jesus Christ. Without him we can have no real 
faith which holds fast to God as the heavenly Father; with¬ 
out him we can reach no happy belief in the first article of 
faith, as Luther has translated it into German for us. That 
faith which enables us to take and live our earthly life as a 
gift from God, to love and serve our nation, to celebrate har¬ 
vest festivals and to thank God for the things which make it 
possible for us and for our nation to live, although we know 
that neither our life nor that of our nation will be long upon 
the earth — that sustaining faith which believes in spite of 
everything, " Nevertheless I am continually with thee! ” we 
owe to the One who makes us rich in God. And that One, the 
living Lord of his church, is waiting for our nation to meet 
him and to find life and perfect peace in him. God grant 
these blessings to us all! amen. 


THE CHOSEN GENERATION 

{People’s Mission, 1933 ) 

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of 
darkness into his marvelous light. —/ Pet. 2:9 

❖ 

Today, dear fellow worshipers, the hope which unites us 
all and which must unite us as long as we seriously wish to 
be called Christians, is that this turbulent time which is stir¬ 
ring up our nation and troubling it to its very depths may 
not have come upon us in vain. Somehow or other we all 
feel that it is not with the nation alone that the Lord God 
is trying out new methods; he also has something new and 
special in view with regard to his church in our midst. 

It is true that while waiting for God to reveal his plan 
we may have the same experience as the prophet Elijah of 
old. We may fear that God is coming to us in wind and 
earthquake and fire, and that under his mighty tread all 
things must surely be shattered and perish. In sooth, our 
church has been thoroughly shaken out of its self-satisfied 
and meditative calm as never since the days of the Reforma¬ 
tion. It is experiencing a real revolution, an upheaval which 
is leaving no stone standing on another. Wherever we look 
we see new men, new offices, new laws and new ordinances. 

Under these circumstances it is easy to understand why 
many of our members — particularly those who love their 
church because they owe it some debt of gratitude — are 
52- 


The Chosen Generation 53 

becoming weary and dispirited, and are asking, “ What will 
be the end of it all ? ” This anxious question is certainly 
not unjustified, and it cannot be disposed of simply by re¬ 
ferring the questioner to those others of our members who 
believe that from this upheaval new life will inevitably come 
forth. The fact that everything is being changed does not 
mean that things must now be better, nor does it mean that 
they will necessarily be worse. Neither our hopes nor our 
fears, however earnest and honest they may be, can help 
us to foretell the result. 

Does God intend to punish us by thus turning the Prot¬ 
estant church upside down ? Or is his aim to give us a new 
beginning ? Dear friends, we do not know and we cannot 
know. For God is not in the wind nor in the earthquake 
nor in the fire; these are merely the messengers and heralds 
who precede him and announce his coming; these are the 
signals which rouse us and bid us prepare to meet our God. 

The main thing — and the purpose of these days through 
which we as a church are passing — is that we shall make 
ready, with new zeal and new seriousness, to hear — nay, 
to listen for — what God wishes to tell us. For we cannot 
possibly deny that in spite of all we have gone through in 
the last twenty years our Christianity has remained an ex¬ 
tremely uninspired and plebeian affair. 

All around us today we hear the cry for a happy, strong, 
virile, proud faith. We can challenge that demand; we can 
very easily object that that will not do, for after all the 
Christian faith is a deadly serious affair and is based on the 
forgiveness of sin, and to make forgiveness possible the Lord 
Jesus Christ had to suffer and die upon the cross. But in 
actual fact, of course, we have made no such objection. We 


54 Here Stand I! 

have said nothing at all. And when at any time and in any 
place we have been stopped and asked about our faith, we 
have generally kept an embarrassed silence instead of mak¬ 
ing a bold and manly confession of our creed. “ Please do 
not question me,” we say. “ My faith is my most private and 
personal affair; and if you take me for a Christian, then 
please let my faith alone and I’ll not meddle with yours.” 
Such narrowness is utterly intolerable. And not only that: 
such so-called Christianity justifies that caustic critic and 
enemy of Christ who said, “ The Christians would have to 
look more redeemed for me to believe in their Redeemer.” 
As Christian men and women we dare not and may not give 
the impression of continually apologizing for our presence. 

We must give earnest attention to the call for a joyous, 
glorious faith, for there is obviously something wrong in 
the present state of affairs. Our faith is normally no more 
than an opinion, of the same nature as our opinions about 
every possible subject — men and things, life and death, 
God and the world. Everything is a matter of opinion. 
One person looks at a thing in this way and another in that, 
according to where he is standing and to the angle from 
which he is viewing it. And why should not each have his 
own view, his particular way of looking at things — indeed, 
at the world! 

Now we arrive at our opinions in two ways. Some of 
them we inherit from our parents; others we acquire in the 
course of our experiences. So natural do we consider these 
processes that when someone proclaims the superiority of 
his faith, we — regarding that faith as no more than opin¬ 
ion, either inherited or acquired — forthwith label him pre- 


The Chosen Generation 55 

sumptuous and conceited. And indeed, if faith is no more 
than opinion we are correct in so thinking and in conclud¬ 
ing that it is impossible to benefit the world or our nation 
or anybody else with it. 

Up to the present day the Christian has been, as a rule, 
essentially a private individual with Christian convictions 
of some sort; and therefore Christianity as a whole has been 
a humble, somewhat timid and paltry affair, with no real 
force and no true life in it. Now, however, we can no longer 
make shift with that sort of thing. It is no longer possible 
for us to hold that kind of faith: it is a rotten tree blown 
down by the wind of these days; it is a dilapidated hovel 
destroyed by the earthquake of the new times; it is a 
thatched roof devoured in an instant by the fire. 

Of what use, then, are our convictions and opinions, our 
ideas and ideals today ? They have all long since been swept 
into the maelstrom of a seething, foaming, radically chang¬ 
ing time. None of our carefully arranged plans now serves 
any purpose. We are starting again from the beginning; 
we are once more at the primitive stage of seeking no more 
than a safe spot on which to stand. 

What is really meant by faith? What after all do 
we know about God? And what has our short, precari¬ 
ous human life to do with him? It is good to ask these 
questions; it is good to end by becoming so humble that we 
can keep silent and listen; for we know nothing of God 
and can know nothing of him unless he himself talks to us, 
unless he himself tells us what we are to think about him 
and expect from him. 

All faith which aims at being more than an opinion held 


56 Here Stand I! 

today and tomorrow swept away by the wind — all faith 
which, by binding us to the living God, really represents 
strength and support — depends upon God’s word reaching 
us. By God’s word I mean not what we or others think 
and say about God, but what God thinks about us and says 
to us. That and that alone is the foundation of the faith 
which has the right to bear his name! And we can hear this 
word of God to us if we open our minds to it, not as a doc¬ 
trine, not as a church dogma, but as a call which concerns 
us, as a living voice which is seeking us: “ Adam — man — 
where art thou ? ” This word became flesh; before us and 
among us stands the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him the eternal 
and inaccessible God speaks to us, his creatures. 

We now begin to be aware of the immeasurable distance 
which separates us from God, the abyss of sin and disobedi¬ 
ence which lies between God and us, the darkness which 
keeps us from seeing God; but even as we do so, we hear 
the voice calling to us: “ Be comforted and fear not! It is I! 
I come to seek that which was lost and to save sinners. I 
am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not 
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” 

Faith, dear brethren, means hearing God’s call with which 
he has “ called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 
Faith means letting oneself be found by the Lord Jesus 
Christ who is even now on his way to seek us. 

This faith lives by God’s great deeds; this faith under¬ 
stands what the apostle says: “Ye are a chosen generation ” 
— the generation on whom God has bestowed his friendship; 
“ the royal priesthood ” that may stand free and happy before 
the King of kings; “ the holy nation,” redeemed, bought, and 
won from all sin, from death and the power of the devil; 


The Chosen Generation 57 

“ the peculiar people ” that may belong to him and live un¬ 
der him in his kingdom and serve him in eternal righteous¬ 
ness and purity and bliss. 

Thus, based upon God’s works faith becomes truly happy 
and strong and virile and proud. Thus faith loses the mean¬ 
ness characteristic of all human thought. Then we become 
certain of our cause because it is God’s cause; then courage 
and humility, pride and simplicity, strength and goodness 
are marvelously intermingled. 

Such faith knows how rich it is and knows, too, that it 
lives by undeserved and wonderful goodness. “ By the grace 
of God I am what I am.” And for that reason there is noth¬ 
ing narrow, self-satisfied or complacent about it. 

According to Luther’s well known phrase, true faith is “ a 
living, active, energetic thing.” It is not only the hypothesis 
and preliminary condition of all preaching of the gospel; 
it is life and action itself; it is itself a proof of the great works 
of God, “ that ye should show forth the praises of him who 
hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 

The important thing today is that our nation again come 
into personal contact with the eternal God, that it again let 
itself be found by the Lord Jesus Christ. The meaning and 
aim of every “ People’s Mission ” is toward this end. For 
“ neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none 
other name under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved.” 

We must not deceive ourselves, however, dear brethren, by 
thinking that in the long run this result could ever be per¬ 
manently achieved through Christian organizations and 
propaganda campaigns. It is you as a congregation and you 
as individuals who must bring it about. Living faith, living 


Here Stand I! 


58 

Christians, living congregations — that is what the People’s 
Mission must stand for, otherwise the labor will be in vain. 

So today God is calling us and bidding us believe — not 
only for our own sakes, but for the sake of our brothers and sis¬ 
ters, for the sake of our nation. God is calling us in the Lord 
Jesus Christ out of darkness into light, out of the gloom and 
uncertainty of our own opinions, which are today of no use 
to us, into the brightness and certainty of his good and gra¬ 
cious will, so that we may hear and believe, and so that our 
hearing and believing may become a testimony to his glory. 
“ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” 

AMEN. 


JUSTIFICATION WITHOUT THE 
DEEDS OF THE LAW 

(Reformation Festival, 1933) 

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of 
the law. — Rom. 3:28 

* 

This year’s Reformation festival comes at an unfortunate 
time. There have already been and there are still to be so 
many celebrations in connection with the Luther jubilee that 
the thirty-first of October has passed almost unnoticed; and 
even this day, which is Reformation Sunday, is not meeting 
the public sympathy and attention which it probably would 
were we not busy with so many other things — the winter 
relief work, the four hundred fiftieth anniversary of Luther’s 
birthday, the thought of the twelfth of November, the prepa¬ 
rations for Luther day. Moreover, within the Protestant 
church there is so much that is in a state of transition, of 
growth and decay, that really there is scarcely time or room 
for retrospection. 

In itself, this situation need not be wrong. It is even good 
for us to be forced to take the present very seriously and to 
ask where our immediate duty lies. Today, especially, it 
may be a true blessing if we forget the eternal yesterday 
which restrains and hampers us, and which — particularly 
in the church — keeps us at the question of “right or 
wrong,” when in reality the problem has long been “ to be or 
not to be.” For the church of the German Reformation is 


59 


6o Here Stand I! 

again faced with the question of its existence, and no amount 
of bragging about the union of the many established churches 
which has been achieved and no reference to the principle 
of episcopal leadership which has been put into operation 
can dispose of this question and the problem which it sets. 
The question simply insists upon being heard and the prob¬ 
lem upon being tackled. Rome today stands secure in the un¬ 
assailable position of the concordat; and meanwhile the new 
battlefront of German-Teutonic piety is being drawn up and 
has already begun its first offensives. Thus the signs do not 
seem to point to a peaceful development, but rather to the 
beginning of a struggle; and so in truth there is no time to 
lose in the company of memories. 

Thus the 1933 picture of Luther, which represents him as a 
fighter, is also in complete harmony with the present situa¬ 
tion. We do not want the Luther of yesterday and of the 
day before yesterday; we have no desire to learn from the 
past what Luther was to his time and to our fathers; we 
are scarcely affected by what he taught and thought. Luther 
is to us the symbol, the model and the prototype of the re¬ 
ligious Christian hero, the pattern for the church leader for 
today and tomorrow. 

Much is being said and written at the present time about 
the “ Luther spirit.” If one looks critically at the use of the 
term, one sees that behind all this talk and writing is deep 
respect for the impressive human qualities of this man — for 
his naive unconcern, his intrepid courage, his tenacious stead¬ 
fastness, his straightforward and unflinching will, his pro¬ 
found tenderness — and behind it all lies an unfulfilled 
desire: “ If only we had more of this Luther spirit, the out¬ 
look for our nation and our church would be better. Let 


Justification without Deeds of Law 6i 

us cultivate this Luther spirit today, and tomorrow we will 
be a step forward! ” 

Good and well, dear brethren. Certainly I do not wish to 
dissuade anyone from taking the man Luther as a pattern; 
but I must certainly dissuade anyone from thinking — nay, 
I must seriously warn anyone against thinking — that the 
struggle for existence between the Protestant church and 
Rome and the neo-paganism of today could possibly be 
waged and won with this Luther spirit. Such a belief would 
be a fatal error, and it really looks as though the devil had 
only been waiting for this Luther anniversary to set afoot a 
roaring trade with this delusion in Protestant Christendom; 
for though we cannot cast out the devil through Beelzebub, 
the devil may drive out the spirit of Luther with the “ Luther 
spirit”! Therefore beware! For here it may easily come 
to pass that the prophet Luther will be replaced by the man 
Luther and that we shall take our inspiration from the hu¬ 
man hero instead of listening to the message which God 
sent us through him. 

However paradoxical it may seem, the same Luther who 
put the candle of the gospel back into the candlestick so that 
it might give light to all in the house — that same Luther 
will become the bushel under which the light is hid and 
finally extinguished if we in the Protestant church preach 
and cultivate such a Luther spirit. The great reformer him¬ 
self knew what he was doing when he opposed his follow¬ 
ers’ desire to name themselves after him and mockingly and 
drastically called himself “ an old bag of worms.” “ It is 
not I who matter,” he said; “ it is not the man — the fighter 
— the hero — or whatever else you may call me — who 
matters; so for God’s sake don’t make a new saint of me! ” 


62 Here Stand I! 

For God does not want men who model themselves after 
any saint whatever, even though his name happens to be 
Luther. God wants men who believe that in spite of all 
that separates us from him, he is our Father and Lord by 
virtue of the grace he freely gives us; and this grace, which 
gives us free access to God, which furnishes us with faith in 
God as our Father and Lord, exists only in the one person in 
whom God himself comes to us: “ his name is Jesus Christ.” 
He is the light of the world; and it was Luthers mission to 
make this light shine for us in undimmed brightness, yester¬ 
day and today and to all eternity. Solus Christus — Christ 
alone! 

There is absolutely no sense in talking of Luther and in cele¬ 
brating Luther’s memory within the Protestant church if 
we stop at Luther’s image and do not look at him whom 
Luther is pointing out to us. The temptation is great, for 
Luther as a German is nearer to us than the Jewish rabbi of 
Nazareth. Luther with all his corners and edges is less offen¬ 
sive to us than this Jesus whom — to our annoyance — no 
one could or can convict of sin. Between us and Luther the 
distance is relative, for when all is said and done Luther 
is one of us; between us and Christ the distance is infinite, 
for after all Christ is God. But faith in Luther remains hol¬ 
low and ineffective if we do not join with Luther in confess¬ 
ing our faith in Christ and Christ alone. Therefore I think 
that the best thing that has been said so far during the 
Luther jubilee is the simple message which Hindenburg gave 
to the present Reichsbishop: “ See that Christ is preached in 
Germany! ” 

At first glance it seems self-evident that this is being done. 
We have often enough heard it said that the creed remains 


Justification without Deeds of Law 63 

inviolate; Christ remains the Lord of the church, and the 
heritage of the Reformation must be loyally guarded. But 
is it really so indisputably apparent? Is it really so self- 
evident ? Or does “ preaching Christ ” mean something 
other than preaching Christ alone, something other than 
preaching the word of him who says, “ No man cometh unto 
the Father but by me ” ? And if we hear and take in the 
message of Christ, are we not forced to draw the sole possible 
conclusion and to confess with the Jew Paul and the German 
Luther: “ Therefore — after we know Christ — we conclude 
that a man is justified in the sight of God by faith without 
the deeds of the law ” ? It may be that these words are al¬ 
ready so familiar to us children of the Reformation that they 
have ceased to have any meaning for us. 

We think in this connection of Paul, how he fought and 
strove that the gentiles might be allowed to become Chris¬ 
tians without being circumcised and without conforming to 
the Jewish law. We think of Luther, how he turned against 
the false belief of Rome, which held that in order to find 
favor in the sight of God Christian men and women must 
first earn God’s grace little by little with “ good works.” 
And we are comfortably convinced that these things no 
longer affect us; these times are past. We have long since 
learned to take a larger view of God, and for that reason 
we remain Protestants in face of all Jewish and Roman au¬ 
thority; the law no longer troubles us. 

And yet, dear brethren, the law by which men would like 
to win God’s favor is still with us; it is part of the iron stock 
in trade of all pious humanity and of every true religion. 
The old Jewish law had long been dead in Christendom 
when Luther fought against the “ law of works ” of the 


64 Here Stand I! 

Church of Rome, and today for us this law of Rome has also 
long been dead. But — the law is dead, long live the law! 
If need be, we ourselves make the law in order to be able to 
plead before God that we have fulfilled it. 

Faith itself became the “law of true belief” almost in 
Luther’s day. You must have the proper faith, then you 
will be right with God: that was the law of orthodoxy. And 
when its hollowness became apparent people soon found 
a new law. You must act rightly, then you will be right 
with God: that was the law of the “ Enlightenment.” And 
then came the law of the free moral personality as the law of 
truly unbounded possibilities: each his own lawgiver, with 
God agreeing to the self-made law and approving of it. So 
many laws — and so many false trails! And we have not 
nearly finished with them. Fifteen years ago there were 
people who thought and said that he who takes the will of 
God seriously must be a socialist. Today, with even greater 
passion, there is being set up a law which says, “ If you are 
as much of a nationalist and as much of a socialist as our 
Fiihrer desires, you are a Christian though you may not 
know it.” It is even said that our whole nation would be 
doing the will of God if only it had purified its species and 
race. Deeds of the law on which to base a claim to God’s 
favor! Of course, Christ is to remain and faith is to remain 
— they are also to remain. 

Dear brethren, that “ also ” is the devil, and against that 
“ also ” Luther must come forth — not only the man Luther 
and not only the human Luther spirit which may inspire us 
to make another wonderful law with which to justify our¬ 
selves, but the Luther whose pen was guided by the Holy 
Ghost when he wrote the little word “ alone ” — “ through 


Justification without Deeds of Law 65 

faith alone.” To be sure, the word does not exist in the origi¬ 
nal text. The philologist can prove that the translation here 
is faulty, and indeed Luther’s opponents at Rome snorted 
with rage at this “ falsification.” But Luther adhered to the 
word and there it stands, and no power in the world will 
strike it out again. 

This word tells us that God the Lord is an envious and 
jealous God who will tolerate no other gods or demigods be¬ 
side him. In rejecting the deeds of the law he rejects every 
human claim to his favor. Many roads lead to Rome but 
only one road leads to God, and that road does not lead from 
us to God but from God to us; and it is called “ Christ alone.” 
“ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I am the way, 
the truth and the life.” 

Thus we are referred to Holy Scripture as the Word of 
God which testifies to Christ alone. Thus we are referred to 
the grace of God, which becomes a certainty to us in Christ 
alone because in him the divine severity and the comforting 
pity of God meet in indivisible unity. Thus we are founded 
upon faith, yea, upon that faith alone which is no longer an 
opinion we have about God and which does not depend upon 
the nature of our ideas about God, but which rather receives 
the grace of God in Christ and puts its trust in that grace. 

“ See that Christ is preached in Germany! ” Christ, and 
not deeds of the law; God’s deeds and not our deeds. That 
preaching of Christ alone will decide whether Luther’s spirit 
remains alive among us, whether his work still lives, whether 
there will continue to be a Protestant church in the future. 
For thus says Dr. Martin Luther: “ Where this article is ab¬ 
sent — the article of justification by faith alone — the church 
is absent and it is impossible to combat error.” amen. 


THE SIFTING 


(fourth Sunday before Easter, 1934) 

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, 
that he may sift you as wheat: 

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art con¬ 
verted, strengthen thy brethren. 

And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and 
to death. 

And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that 
thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. — Luke 22:31-34 

❖ 

In the life of Christendom there are long periods of silent 
development when it seems as though the kingdom of God 
were slowly and steadily ripening among us as the sown seed 
ripens for the harvest. This maturing process is of course 
not such that it must inevitably — as with the inward con¬ 
sistency of a natural law — result in a completely Christian 
world; but it is such that faith and unbelief dwell together 
in outward peace but in inward contention, in an invisible, 
silent and obstinate struggle for the place in the sun. 

This is the situation described in the parable of the tares 
among the wheat; and it cannot be cleared up and eliminated 
by any Christian zeal, however honest and well meant that 
zeal may be. “ Let both grow together until the harvest.” 
Anyone who becomes impatient and thinks he might hasten 
the development only manages at the most to found a new 
sect; but he can never prevent even the new sect from at once 
coming under that same law, because it is not given to us 
66 


The Sifting 67 

to represent the fellowship of the faithful in pure and un¬ 
alloyed form in this world and in our time. 

But now and then in the course of the centuries this silent, 
steady development suddenly breaks off, without any inter¬ 
ference from us; and when that happens it always looks as 
though the Last Day were at hand for Christendom. Then 
our ears are opened for the message of the supreme verities, 
then our eyes see God’s judgment, for suddenly the field of 
our human desires and actions is and decisions are made 
which cannot be revoked. And the great question confronts 
us, whether the community of Jesus Christ is in earnest 
about following its Lord in tribulation and sorrow, or 
whether it is seeking to shirk this command. It is the same 
question that was put to the disciples when the Lord Jesus 
Christ was preparing for Gethsemane and Golgotha, the 
same question that runs through all the persecutions of the 
early Christians, the question put by God to our fathers in 
the days of the Reformation and the Counter Reformation: 
“ Do you profess Christ or do you deny him ? ” 

Unless all the signs deceive us, dear friends, such a time 
has dawned again, for all of us as a community of Christ, 
without contributory action on our part, are faced with this 
choice, and the danger is that in making it we may uninten¬ 
tionally create a schism. 

Today we are already talking of the seriousness of the 
position of our church as if we took that seriousness to some 
extent as a matter of course. We have already grown accus¬ 
tomed to regarding the present crisis as a chronic and per¬ 
manent condition. The result of this attitude is that we fail 
to appreciate the real crisis. It is not enough for us merely 
to acquiesce in some sort of verdict and say, “ Everything is 


68 Here Stand I! 

sure to come right ” or, “ The catastrophe can no longer be 
averted.” We are not such disinterested spectators that we 
can be satisfied with bromides. We ourselves are being asked 
to which side we belong; and God is already taking care that 
we do not shirk the answer. 

Our position is actually this: we have all of us — the whole 
church and the whole community — been thrown into the 
Tempter’s sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing, 
and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or 
chaff. Verily, a time of sifting has come upon us, and even 
the most indolent and peaceful among us must see that the 
calm of a meditative Christianity is at an end. 

At first we may all have been conscious of a distinct feeling 
of relief that there was again and at last some life and move¬ 
ment in our church. But only too soon there was more life 
and movement than seemed good or necessary, and before 
long we began to suspect that it was not God at all who was 
shaking us awake, not his Holy Spirit that was blowing 
through us. For we received from the new awakening no 
new faith or new spiritual baptism, but were rather led into 
frightful errors and disorders; and all efforts to create light 
and peace were vain, and all the signs which seemed to fore¬ 
shadow a new beginning came to nought. 

This is not a springtime of hope and expectancy for the 
Christian church; it is testing time, and God is giving Satan 
liberty to shake us up so that it may be seen what manner of 
men we are. 

We had dreamed of a new promise and we had thought 
that unforeseen possibilities for the work of the church were 
opening up before us — but the door has slammed shut, and 


The Sifting 69 

we are being called back to the way of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which is still — and once again — the way of suffering. 

Satan swings his sieve and Christianity is thrown hither 
and thither; and he who is not ready to suffer, he who called 
himself a Christian only because he hoped to gain something 
for his race and nation, is blown away like chaff by the wind 
of these times. We see it daily and our hearts grow heavy 
within us. One need only listen to and question those who 
— as we thought — had found their way back to the church 
and to its Lord: disillusionment set in long ago and is daily in¬ 
creasing. After all, what has Jesus of Nazareth, of whom 
men say that he is the Christ, really to offer us ? 

And yet I will not commit the error of painting everything 
black. When all is said and done, it cannot be denied that 
in the year which lies behind us many an honest confession 
of faith was made in word and in deed. And in spite of all 
the disappointments we have experienced, many men and 
women here and there in our church have really stood by 
their creed, even under difficulties. When all is said and 
done, that manly resoluteness which made Peter say, “ Lord, 
I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death,” 
has not yet died out among us. Many a silent hope has clung 
to it; many aspirations and prayers have been built upon it, 
more perhaps than for years; and we waited to see if we 
might be spared the test. But Satan swings his sieve and the 
sifting is not yet at an end. 

“With thee,” said Peter; and many a man has said and 
thought, “ With thee.” But before we can approach Christ 
we must rid ourselves of all that is at bottom only human 
courage, secret pride and self-confidence in a pious disguise. 


70 Here Stand I! 

God will not let us off with merely reaching out for a 
martyr’s crown. 

Peter would have stood his ground before the Sanhedrin 
and before the Roman governor, and would have made his 
confession of faith well and bravely; before the nameless 
maid-servant he had to deny his Master because his courage 
was not ready and his faith not so strong as he thought: “ I 
know him not! ” 

Heroic Christianity, dear friends, is still humanly possible 
and can be achieved even without faith; but in the hour of 
trial and sifting it, too, is blown away like chaff. The Lord 
Jesus Christ did not fall upon the field of battle but was 
put to death upon the cross; he did not die as a martyr but 
as a criminal; he was not admired but despised. 

We shudder at this way of the cross, and we have a ter¬ 
ror, which no courage and no remedy can subdue, of con¬ 
tempt and ridicule. The prospect of facing them puts an 
end to our dreams of martyrdom and heroism, and finally 
the only prudent course seems to be to deny Christ. “ One 
must do in Rome as the Romans do! ” 

We are now faced with the unequivocal question: What 
about our faith? And we see, as Peter saw, that faith 
needs something more than resolution and readiness to suffer 
and sacrifice; we see that faith is no unchangeable and in¬ 
alienable possession, which we have, with which we calcu¬ 
late and on which we can rely. Peter thought it was, and 
this confidence proved his undoing; for behind his strong 
words there was only a weak faith. That is why Jesus said 
to him, “ When thou art converted. . . .” For the disciple 
did not yet know what conversion really was; he had not real¬ 
ized what is really meant by faith. 


The Sifting 71 

The truth is that conversion and faith can be planted within 
us only by an act of God, and only God can cause them to 
remain effectual. This truth makes us humble, for it marks 
the limits of human capabilities and refers us to God. “ Save 
me, O Lord, and I shall be saved,” prays the prophet Jere¬ 
miah. “ For it is God which worketh in you both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure,” the apostle reminds us. That is 
why Jesus makes intercession for the disciple who is so sure 
of his loyalty and whose fall he foresees so clearly. “ I have 
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” 

The stabilizing element in our faith does not lie within 
us. What keeps us from falling in the hour of temptation 
is not our own honesty and loyalty but God’s loyalty which 
upholds us. The strength of every true confession of faith in 
Christ lies in the fact that it is nothing but our consent to 
what the Lord Jesus Christ does to us. 

And so today we must let ourselves be told again that over 
the whole course of Jesus’ life and Passion are written the 
words “ for thee ”; and we must take this thought to heart. 
Then shall we know for certain that God is not waiting 
for us to turn to him, but that he has long since turned to us 
and found us and encompassed us with his loyalty. 

If we listen to that truth and cling to it this testing time 
cannot shake us and must only bind us all the more closely 
to the Lord to whom we belong and whom we acknowledge 
because he has acknowledged us and given his life for us. 
And only by listening to that truth will we make this time 
of sifting become a time of blessing for us. It is meant to 
lead us back to the source of faith and to the wellspring of 
strength. amen. 


THE ANOINTING 


(Palm Sunday, 1934) 

Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that 
if any man knew where he were, he should show it, that they might take him. 

Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was 
which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. 

There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of 
them that sat at the table with him. 

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed 
the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with 
the odor of the ointment. 

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should 
betray him, 

Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the 
poor? 

This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and 
had the bag, and bare what was put therein. 

Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept 
this. 

For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always. 

— John 11:57; 12:1-8 


❖ 

Today we enter Holy Week, and this Sunday, like the 
coming days, should find us peculiarly silent, so that the 
eyes of our soul and the ears of our heart may be opened to 
the message of the Passion and death of the Lord Jesus 
Christ; for our knowledge of that Passion and death and 
our attempts to understand them are hopelessly inadequate, 
and end again and again in frightened helplessness. Our eye 
cannot penetrate the mystery and our thoughts cannot 
fathom its depths. And when past generations imagined 
that they had found a clue to the riddle, all their strenuous 

72- 


The Anointing 


73 

efforts only showed more clearly than ever that such labor 
is vain and that the cross remains a foolishness and a stum¬ 
bling block to the mind which broods upon it. We can to 
an extent agree with and follow the words and ways of 
Jesus; we can draw our morals and deduce our principles 
from them; but his sufferings are a barrier which we can¬ 
not cross and which we cannot break down. And here we 
get an inkling of what Luther means when he confesses in 
his Shorter Catechism: “I believe that it is not through 
my own reason or strength that I can believe in Jesus Christ 
my Lord or come to him.” 

Not through my own reason or strength! This “not” 
may again be brought home to us by an examination of to¬ 
day’s gospel lesson. What influences Judas here and what 
— as we read in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark — also 
finds an echo in the hearts of the other disciples, is in no 
wise deep-seated wickedness or blind hatred; it is only the 
voice of their own reason and of a perfectly normal human 
desire. Yes, it is precisely the voice of humanity which 
makes itself heard here: Is it not, indeed, better and more 
fitting to be sensible and help the poor with the three hun¬ 
dred pence than to squander the money in some useless 
demonstration ? The answer is so self-evident that the ques¬ 
tion is superfluous. And who among us would be willing to 
declare that he was convinced by the strange words in which 
Jesus sides with Mary against the disciples? “The poor 
always ye have with you; but me ye have not always” — 
surely these words are unsatisfactory. They obviously do 
not meet the real objection which is raised here. We do 
not understand why the one thing must exclude the other, if 
one looks at the matter sensibly. 


74 Here Stand I! 

Yes, perhaps it seems to us extremely hard — at least I 
am conscious of annoyance every time I read the passage — 
that the evangelist should so unhesitatingly ascribe impure 
motives to Judas and that he should, despite the latter’s very 
sensible criticism, simply deny that Judas really cares about 
the poor whose cause he pleads. And though we may, on 
the strength of the evangelist’s words, turn away from Judas 
and admit that he probably was an inferior character, it is 
not so easy to admit that his criticism was really unfounded 
and unreasonable. 

That is why we feel that, through the rebuff which is 
meted out to Judas, we ourselves are somehow repulsed by 
Jesus and misunderstood in an honest desire which deserves 
to be taken seriously. We are even tempted to call Jesus as 
a witness against himself; for, after all, he himself has again 
and again given us to understand and has emphasized in 
his words and deeds, his parables and miracles, that we 
cannot serve God except in the neighbor whom he sets at 
our side or lays at our feet; that it is not enough to say 
“ Lord, Lord! ” but that we must do his will. Are things 
suddenly to be different now ? 

Obviously there is something wrong here. We stand be¬ 
fore a locked door to which we have no key, on the edge of a 
chasm over which our reason and strength can build no 
bridge. It really seems as though the Lord Jesus Christ, 
while preparing for suffering and death, were relegating 
our humanity, our love of our neighbor and all that that im¬ 
plies, into the background as something of secondary im¬ 
portance. Such details no longer matter to him. Yes, how 
indifferent his words really sound — “ The poor always ye 
have with you.” Let us listen to these words quietly and 
seriously. 


The Anointing 75 

On the other hand, what Mary does, what with the best 
will in the world we can describe only as an exuberant out¬ 
burst of emotion, Jesus not only accepts without demur, 
but expressly defends: “She hath wrought a good work 
upon me.” He looks upon her action as an instance of the 
fulfillment of his gospel and bestows his promise upon it: 
“ Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be 
preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this 
woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” 

Again, we shall not get far in our efforts to understand 
this passage by merely summoning up friendly sympathy 
with this woman. We approve of her motives, but never¬ 
theless what she does remains in our opinion unreasonable, 
a piece of foolish emotionalism. Once more we are inclined 
to call upon Jesus himself to bear witness against Mary’s 
action — the Jesus, that is, who in incorruptible serious¬ 
ness and perfect austerity set his face against all fanatical, 
overemotional worship on the part of his disciples and fol¬ 
lowers; the Jesus whose one and only concern was that his 
word not only should win a hearing and be respected, but 
that it should above all be obeyed. “ Go and do thou like¬ 
wise. . . . This do and thou shalt live.” — Is all this sud¬ 
denly to be changed? Is it worship of himself which he 
now demands? And to all appearances this personal wor¬ 
ship cannot be great enough; for, “ me ye have not always.” 

We can get out of these difficulties with comparative ease 
if we assume that when faced with the prospect of his death 
Jesus himself has become weak; for of course he knew what 
lay before him. But such an assumption only means refer¬ 
ring the problem back to Jesus himself and thus shirking its 
solution. Furthermore, in making this assumption we go 
against psychology, because this would be the only time in the 


76 Here Stand I! 

whole course of his Passion and death that Jesus forgot 
his mission under the stress of humanly understandable self- 
pity. We are wiser to admit that here, too, we have reached 
the limit of our ability to understand the situation. “ Not 
through my own reason or strength! ” Jesus places himself 
in the center: “ Me ye have not always.” And so we will 
listen to these words, too, quietly and seriously. 

And now it becomes clear to us that the dying Lord is 
not concerned with our good will and plans; he is not in¬ 
terested in having us deduce rules of conduct from his words 
and propose to act according to them. That may be all very 
well and may lead to all kinds of sensible and useful re¬ 
sults; and it is certainly true that the Christianizing of the 
nations has been productive of all sorts of benefits — a fact 
which applies to our German nation too. But that does not 
prove from what teacher we take our principles of conduct. 
Today, for instance, an attempt to base the morals of our 
nation on something other than Christianity would natu¬ 
rally be a very difficult undertaking in view of our Christian 
past; but the possibility that such an attempt may be made 
cannot well be disputed, and it is not even certain whether 
we as a nation with Christian culture are really closer to the 
Lord Jesus Christ than we would be if our culture were built 
upon different principles. 

For rather than with principles of conduct — and, as to 
that, Judas and the other disciples doubtless had “ Chris¬ 
tian ” principles — Jesus is concerned with something else, 
namely, with the love which binds us personally to him. 
Lacking this bond all our “ Christian ” principles are but 
human, humane principles in a Christian garment; and 
lacking this bond all that we call love of neighbor, for in- 


The Anointing 77 

stance, is animated by motives similar to those of Judas, 
who in truth cared nothing for the poor but sought only his 
own advantage. — Yes, without this bond even our faith 
is a purely human affair — and I feel it particularly incum¬ 
bent upon me to say today, when we are actually fighting 
a battle about and for our own faith, that we are fighting 
a vain and a human battle if we do not fight in the love of 
Christ and because of this personal bond with him. 

Thus as Christians we have plenty of problems; but these 
problems are not to be solved through our own reason and 
strength. If we wish to solve them as Christians and in the 
spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ we must do so through our 
union with him and out of love to him. This love is his 
work in us, the fruit of his Passion and death. Mary of 
Bethany was the first to see this love and to let herself be 
embraced by it, even before the sufferings of Christ had 
begun. That is why she has the place of honor before all 
others which Jesus assigned to her. 

And if we, dear brethren, do not understand the meaning 
of the Passion and death of the Saviour, if our minds are 
baffled by them — no matter! If only we let ourselves be 
seized by them; if only we read and hear in them the words 
“ for you ”; if only we learn to believe in the love with which 
Christ loves us, so that we may be able to love him: that is 
enough on which to base our whole life. 

Oh that in the midst of all the unrest and all the discord 
in the church we might have sufficient quietness during 
these days to allow us to hear this message of the cross! 

AMEN. 


HE IS RISEN! 

( Easter, 1934) 

In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the 
week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. 

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended 
from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 

His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 

And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know 
that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 

He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the 
Lord lay: 

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, be¬ 
hold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 

And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did 
run to bring his disciples word. 

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! 
And they came and held him by the feet, and worshiped him. 

Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go 
into Galilee, and there shall they see me. — Matt. 28:1-10 

❖ 

Once more we have made the pilgrimage from Bethle¬ 
hem to Golgotha by way of Galilee, and in the course of it 
the earthly career of Jesus, as far as it is known to us from 
the Gospels, has passed before our eyes: that life outwardly 
spent in poverty and lowliness, beginning in a manger and 
ending on the cross, and yet inwardly filled with richness and 
with a sublimity before which not only his contemporaries 
but we today still stand in silent homage and adoration. For 
that life was and is all grace and truth. For that very reason, 
however, it brings our life into question and forces us to ask 
with agonized anxiety whether we have any right to live at 

78 


He Is Risen! 79 

all — we whose lives are anything but grace and truth, we 
who live by selfishness and self-deception. It is no wonder 
that this Jesus ends upon the cross; indeed, that cross is the 
last, supreme attempt to turn aside judgment from us and 
to win back our human freedom. 

But for us, how are we to continue to live our selfish 
lives if Jesus is right, if God lives and if he claims dominion 
over us ? How are we to continue to live if it is not we who 
have the last word, but God ? The answer is that it appears 
we cannot. That is why the life of this Jesus of Nazareth 
must be an episode; that is why he must die by the hand 
of man; that is why the story of his life must end with a full 
stop: “So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing 
the stone, and setting a watch.” 

It is necessary, dear friends, that we keep these human 
and historical facts before our eyes in order not to deprive 
the Christian Easter festival utterly of its spiritual signifi¬ 
cance; for to a great extent Easter has become to us only a 
symbol and an allegory of the victory of life over death, 
of light over darkness, of spring over winter — all beautiful 
and elevating ideas, to be sure, transmutable into mood and 
feeling; but no more than that! For a little reflection makes 
us complete the cycles by saying that after spring comes 
autumn, after the light comes darkness, and ultimately after 
life comes death. And with that we are where we began. 

On that first Easter morning no joyous bells rang out to 
an astonished humanity the news of life’s victory over death. 
What happened then brought fear and alarm upon men, 
and by no means only upon the keepers of the tomb who “ for 
fear did shake and became as dead men.” The Easter terror 
is universal, because it is of vital interest to the whole world 


8o Here Stand I! 

that Jesus should be dead and that the full stop which we 
wrote on Good Friday after his life should remain. The 
stone must stay before the tomb so that we may have peace. 
We will gladly tend and care for the sepulcher; we will 
gladly mourn and revere the dead man, and perhaps even 
lament the tragic fact that he was too good and too great 
for us to be able to bear him. Only he must leave us in 
peace; he must not ask us to hear, in his words and deeds, in 
his sufferings and death, the voice of the living God calling 
us to a sense of our responsibility. That is the reason for 
the stone, that is the reason for the full stop after his life and 
work. 

But Easter begins with the earthquake; the angel of the 
Lord rolls away the stone from the door of the sepulcher 
and seats himself upon it. We do not have the last word; 
the full stop with which we try to create peace for ourselves 
becomes a question mark: “ Now what about the man who 
was put to death upon the cross ? ” The question remains 
open, for his tomb stands open — and all the answers which 
we try to give are empty and devoid of meaning, for his tomb 
is empty. 

Here we are at the end of all our resources; here one thing 
becomes obvious: that our last word is no last word and we 
cannot possibly escape from the living God! The Easter 
story remains full of obscurities; all human speculation and 
thought have come to grief over it and will always come to 
grief over it. The resurrection of Jesus is not what we call 
a historical fact. It can be neither proved nor refuted by any 
method of historical research. What remains is the empty 
tomb, is the fact that the dead man who lay in that tomb 
gives us no peace, that we are haunted by the knowledge 


He Is Risen! 8i 

that Good Friday, as a human effort and as an attempt to 
get rid of Jesus of Nazareth, was a futile venture. 

This is anything but a message of “ glad tidings to all 
men.” This is an earthquake sent by God, which shatters 
the last remnants of our human security and opens before 
us a yawning void. The empty tomb and the stone which 
was rolled away put an end to all piously happy, romantic 
notions of Easter. Here we are told plainly, “Make no 
mistake: it is the living God who speaks the last word! ” 

And yet, though it is no message of “ glad tidings to all 
men,” Easter is good news. Indeed, it is in the true sense 
of the word the good news which is the central point of all 
Christian teaching. We need only glance at the Acts of 
the Apostles to see that all the preaching of the disciples 
culminates in this testimony: God has raised from the dead 
that same Jesus who died on the cross on Good Friday, and 
has made him Lord and Christ. 

And this message reveals the division in men’s minds. 
That is not to say, of course, that the separation takes place 
here first of all. The risen Christ does not face the world 
saying, “ Do you want me or not ? ” His cross stands before 
the world, and it is there that we must decide whether we, 
guilty and condemned sinners, confess our faith in Christ, 
acknowledging the supremacy of God’s truth and desiring 
to live by his grace. Before the world lies the empty tomb, 
mutely asking us whether we are ready to let God have the 
last word. He who wishes to have the last word himself, he 
who thinks that he has got rid of the crucified Christ, must 
barricade himself against the message of Easter. But he 
who stands silent before the cross of Christ, he who knows 
or suspects that he, as one of humanity, has been condemned 


82 Here Stand I! 

by God and who because of that knowledge cannot part 
from the crucified Saviour, will hear the words, “ He is 
risen,” as truly a message of joy. 

Thus it was with the two women in our gospel: “ I know 
that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified! ” Thus it was with 
the disciples. Thus it is with us. No one can be happy in 
the certainty of the risen Christ unless his heart has been won 
by the crucified Jesus. 

The risen Christ is no historical personality with regard 
to whom, after careful consideration of the facts, we can 
make a positive affirmation or denial; he is entirely removed 
from the sphere of all human and practical methods of re¬ 
search. Since Easter he has been called the Lord and since 
Easter he has been the Lord. Whether he comes out of his 
seclusion and where he does so is entirely his affair; but as 
the Lord of faith he comes only to those who believe in him 
as their Lord or who would like to believe in him. And his 
coming means joy and comfort, and his greeting is “ Peace 
be unto you! ” and “ Be not afraid! ” For the fact that he 
is risen and lives means that God has frustrated our human 
action of Good Friday; the crucified Christ died for us, and 
God has accepted his sacrifice. So now there is a truly happy 
message: “ Christ was delivered for our offenses and was 
raised again for our justification.” We are at peace with 
God; for God himself has spoken the last word. 

This is, to be sure, something quite different from the 
familiar Easter joy which is at bottom based only upon the 
fact that our soul moves in harmony with the rhythm of na¬ 
ture, which surrounds us and permeates our being. This 
deeper religious joy is born amid the sorrows of Good Friday 
and it can never deny the fact and the circumstances of its 


He Is Risen! 83 

birth. But once we understand, it is “ with fear and great 
joy ” — with fear, for here we have to do with the living, 
holy God, in whose sight no one is guiltless; but also with 
great joy, for here we encounter the living, gracious Lord 
— the crucified and risen Christ — and we can put our trust 
in him! . . . 

The most beautiful, laughing spring day suddenly be¬ 
comes sad and dreary to us when the clouds of sorrow and 
grief darken its sky. And if we have nothing else to depress 
us on this Easter day, we need only think about the fate 
of our Protestant church and our Protestant community to 
lose all our natural Easter joy. Or shall we try to comfort 
ourselves by saying that things will surely change for the 
better? We could easily be mistaken about that, and then 
indeed we might suffer shipwreck. 

There is a better Easter comfort for us as Christians and as 
a Christian community, a comfort which will never fail. It 
is this: “ He is risen! ” “ Christ lives! ” On the strength of 
that comfort we can face life boldly; on the strength of that 
comfort we can fold our hands and lay all our sorrow and 
distress upon the living Lord, and then even the dreariest 
day and the darkest night must become bright and clear, and 
we shall say — with fear, it is true, but with great joy: “ He 
is risen! The sun that sheds its rays upon me is Jesus Christ, 
my Lord!” amen. 


BROTHERLY LOVE versus HATRED OF 
THE WORLD 


(June, 1934) 

Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the 
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer 
hath eternal life abiding in him. 

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: 
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God 
in him? 

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and 
in truth. —I John 3:13-18 

❖ 

At the close of the story of Pentecost we are told of the 
members of the first Christian fellowship that “ they had 
favor with all the people.” That reads like an idyll and falls 
sweetly on our ear. It probably pleased the young church 
too, for who would not like to go his way in undisturbed 
peace? Surely we have plenty of other cares and troubles 
and sufferings to vex and burden us. And we — the Chris¬ 
tian community of today — feel with grief and pain that this 
peace has been taken from us, and again and again we learn 
the real and inward meaning of that plea from the old 
church prayer in which we ask to be allowed to “ lead a quiet 
and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” 

We must, then, get used to the idea that a state of affairs 

84 


Brotherly Love versus Hatred 85 

which we long regarded as natural and right no longer exists. 
We cannot help being surprised that at the very moment 
when we had hoped for a new, closer union between the na¬ 
tion and the church large numbers of people turn deter¬ 
minedly away — not because of indifference or defective 
knowledge, but in conscious refusal of the Christian message 
and in deliberate opposition to the fellowship of the church. 
Here we unexpectedly come upon a yawning abyss the ex¬ 
istence of which we had never suspected; here a chasm sud¬ 
denly gapes striking terror into our hearts. We were ac¬ 
customed to view the church and the nation as one. Even 
the last fifteen years had not changed that view, for he who 
left the church at the same time left his nation, and he who 
found his way back to his nation as a rule found his way 
back to the church also. And so what we really had was an 
inclusive church with manifold shades of difference; but 
nowhere was there a fixed boundary, nowhere was there an 
unbridgeable gulf. Outside there were only the freethinkers, 
but in separating themselves from God they had also severed 
themselves from the nation. 

Today we face an entirely different situation: church and 
nation can and indeed dare no longer be regarded as one. 
Through the whole nation runs the dividing trench, with 
the Christian community on one side and on the other — 
the “world.” And the side to which the individual be¬ 
longs is no longer determined — as it was up till now — 
by his attitude toward his nation; it is determined only by 
the Lord Jesus Christ and by our attitude toward him. 
Even the fact that we are in the “ church ” does not exempt 
us from this decision; for the rift runs even through this 
church; the world and the Christian community are parting 


86 Here Stand I! 

company even in the church. No one really wanted it but 
nobody is able to prevent it. . . . 

When it happens — as it did recently in our neighborhood 
— that members of the church attend divine service in order 
deliberately to leave the room very noisily during the reading 
of the scripture lesson and insult the preacher in the open 
street after the service, then the rift as it touches the church 
itself is merely becoming visible. And when we are sur¬ 
prised and alarmed at similar outbreaks of elemental hatred 
as at something which ought not to be and should not be 
allowed to be, then the apostle bids us regard them as ab¬ 
solutely normal and in no way surprising: “Marvel not, 
my brethren, if the world hate you! ” 

In other words, we must radically and systematically 
change our ideas concerning the relation of the fellowship 
of Jesus to the world — to the world within the nation and 
to the world within the church. The time of the mythical 
peace between the world and the Christian fellowship is 
coming to an end, and the lull will be followed by a great 
storm. 

I do not stand here as a prophet, dear brethren, or I should 
perhaps be obliged to paint a dark picture of the future — 
distress and tribulation coming upon the fellowship of Christ, 
lukewarmness and defection in our ranks, with only a few 
of our number managing to save their bare life and their 
bare faith. But I am no prophet; I can only pray that the 
Lord Jesus Christ will so guide us that the prince of this 
world may not suddenly come upon us from behind and 
destroy us while we are yet unprepared. But though I may 
not be a prophet, I have been appointed your guardian and 


Brotherly Love versus Hatred 87 

shepherd, with the duty of seeing the danger and openly 
warning you of it and showing you the way to safety; and 
I see the danger and woe unto me if I should say to you, 
“ Peace, peace! ” For it is no peace; it is the world letting 
fall its Christian mask, it is the wolf casting off its sheep’s 
clothing in order to fall upon the flock. It means that we 
must again take the word of the Lord Jesus Christ very 
seriously, as addressed to us: “ And ye shall be hated of all 
men for my name’s sake.” And along with these words we 
have that other saying to keep us from blinding ourselves 
with vain illusions: “ Because iniquity shall abound, the love 
of many shall wax cold.” 

The fellowship of Jesus has no promise that it will ever 
be in the majority; we must indeed guard against thinking 
that there can ever be any kind of human security or assur¬ 
ance against the world’s hatred. All parleys, all truces, all 
peace treaties are unreal, for the world must hate the Chris¬ 
tian fellowship; and because the fellowship, so long as it is a 
Christian fellowship, cannot hate, it must suffer at the hands 
of the world. We must learn this fact anew today, we must 
accept it anew today, without embellishment and without 
compromise. “ Marvel not, my brethren! ” 

And now, dear friends, I hear the objection that rises in 
our hearts and protests that we do not like such mournful 
Christianity, and that such a sour-tempered and sanctimoni¬ 
ous religion is repugnant to our inmost souls. Quite right; 
but does the Passion hymn of the fellowship sound mourn¬ 
ful or sanctimonious, that hymn which we sang a little while 
ago: “Praise God cheerfully with song, exult, thou Chris¬ 
tian host ” ? Do we not hear in it the rhythm of a march- 


88 Here Stand I! 

ing army which is certain of victory? Yea, certain of vic¬ 
tory; for “we know that we have passed from death unto 
life”! 

The thought of facing the hatred of the world may be 
unpleasant; it may depress and vex us; it may insult us; and 
yet the motto of the community of Jesus is: “ We are troubled 
on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not 
in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not 
destroyed.” It is indeed a conquered world which seeks to 
terrify us; it is indeed a condemned and dying hatred which 
attacks us. And we are already out of the kingdom of death, 
for we know of the love which gave up its life for us and 
suffered death for our sakes. 

We are therefore the fellowship of the elect, who have 
come from death into life; we are still in the world but no 
longer of it if we have heard the call of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
“ Follow me,” if we have recognized “ the love, that he laid 
down his life for us.” What can the deadly hatred of a 
dying world signify in the face of the eternal love of the 
living Lord which upholds and supports us ? Then a Paul 
rejoices: “ I am certain that neither death nor life . . . shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord! ” Then a Johann Franck boasts amid 
the misery of the Thirty Years’ War: “ Rage, world, and 
burst asunder; I stand here and sing in safe and sure 
keeping! ” 

No, dear brethren, there is no truth in the idea that Chris¬ 
tianity is mournful; and particularly in suffering, particu¬ 
larly when confronted with the hatred of the world, faith 
will make men strong and glad and reliant: “We know that 
we have passed from death unto life.” 


Brotherly Love versus Hatred 89 

This is assuredly no dead knowledge, but a living cer¬ 
tainty; no mere conviction which we adopt once and for all, 
but a realization that transforms our way of life to one of 
action and love. Therefore, though it is true that our faith 
must be born in solitude with the Lord Jesus Christ and 
that it ever receives its strength from him only, it is only in the 
Christian community, in intercourse with the brethren, that 
we know for certain that our faith is more than an idea, 
that it is life, effective and creative life, and that we know 
for certain that we have truly passed from death unto life. 
Here the love of the one Lord proves a living force — a force 
of love which emanates from us and which upholds us. 
There is a great deal of talk about love; but the most beauti¬ 
ful words can be empty and meaningless, however correct 
and well intentioned they may be. Love is really action and 
truth, or it does not exist at all; and the talk about universal 
love of mankind and about Christian love of one’s neighbor 
has had only one result — it has brought to light the deplor¬ 
able lack of any kind of love in the world. 

Perhaps, however, the blessing of this time, when we have 
to bear the hatred of the world in common, lies precisely in 
the fact that brotherly Christian love, and with it the joyful 
certainty of our faith, is to be given us anew. I know that 
this brotherly love is again awake in many places, and I 
believe that ten days ago, at the first German Confessional 
Synod at Barmen, I stood in the midst of a broad, deep and 
living stream of such love; and I feel sure that that meeting 
was a gift to all of us who were able to be present, because 
it strengthened us in faith and gave us courage to make 
difficult decisions; above all, because it enabled us firmly 
and clearly to take our stand on the action of the church 


90 Here Stand I! 

of the world in severing itself from the community of those 
who believe in Christ and profess their faith in him. We 
certainly did not do so because we thought ourselves better 
than other people. Christ’s church must take the low road, 
the road of suffering and being hated. We have, however, 
not set out upon this road with illusions, but in obedience 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore without faltering, 
because “ we know that we have passed from death unto 
life because we love the brethren.” 

And therefore I ask you, dear brethren, for more than 
your sympathy, for more than your monetary help, on be¬ 
half of the church of Christ. We live by the fact that he 
laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our 
lives for the brethren. 

Love! My brethren, “ let us not love in word, neither in 
tongue; but in deed and in truth ”! amen. 


LOOK ON US! 


(June, 1934) 

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, 
being the ninth hour. 

And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid 
daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them 
that entered into the temple; 

Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 

And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 

And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 

Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: 
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 

And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his 
feet and ankle bones received strength. 

And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, 
walking, and leaping, and praising God. — Acts 3:1-8 

❖ 

We men and women generally judge the question, “ What 
is the good of believing in God ? ” from the standpoint of 
our particular needs at any given time; and thus it is very 
easy to see why we make extremely varied demands upon 
the church as the guardian of our religious possessions. It 
is only natural for us to expect comfort from it in days of 
mourning, and in moments of gladness a consecration which 
will make our joy more lasting. When we become conscious 
of the misery of our existence we desire help, and when we 
see ourselves faced with great tasks we ask for light and 
strength. And who could blame us for so doing? 

Just as this is true of small and individual matters so is 
it true of our affairs as a whole; in every human life there 

9 1 


92 Here Stand I! 

is formed, in the course of the years, a definite kind of piety, 
and every nation and every period bears its characteristic 
religious stamp. Thus it happens quite automatically that 
the Christian church and its message, its congregations and 
its servants are at different times assessed at different values, 
and that they are always being faced anew with the question 
of whether and how far they will yield to the wishes and de¬ 
mands, the hopes and expectations which are brought to 
them. 

It is true of all of us, dear brethren, and it cannot be other¬ 
wise, that our attitude toward the church is absolutely and 
conclusively decided by whether and in what measure the 
church can satisfy our yearning and help our distress. 

I therefore do not doubt that that lame man who had him¬ 
self carried daily to the “gate of the temple which was 
called Beautiful ” was wholeheartedly satisfied with the reli¬ 
gion of his nation and with the practical nature of its church. 
The difficult lot which he had had to bear from birth and 
which, in the four decades of his life, he had come to accept 
as his unalterable fate, prevented him from shaping his ex¬ 
istence by his own strength. It was particularly fortunate 
for him that the religion of his people strongly emphasized 
and kept alive a sense of responsibility for the distress and 
misery of the helpless. And though as a receiver of alms 
he sat before the gate of the temple, and though the prayers 
of the faithful and their hymns reached his ear only as a 
murmur, his interests were looked after; he participated in 
the part of the church service which, from his point of view, 
must have been the real and most important part. With 
good reason and with comprehensible obstinacy he would 
have resisted any propaganda against the temple and its reli- 


Look on Us! 93 

gion, from the very knowledge that for his life at least this 
whole institution represented something of real and tangible 
value. 

Is that which binds us to the church and keeps us in the 
church really something fundamentally different, or is it not 
also and solely the fact that we find and hope to continue 
to find here something which fills the gap in our lives and 
lightens our burden? Is it not the wish for some sort of 
alms after we have resignedly accepted the real infirmity 
of our lives ? When I say that, I am not even thinking first 
and foremost of the hundreds of thousands who have hith¬ 
erto had recourse to the church as a welfare organization, 
desiring its help in their poverty and sickness. I am think¬ 
ing rather of the millions to whom it has once meant an 
hour of spiritual elevation and inward reflection — to whom 
it has meant a little consecration and solemnity, a little silence 
and peace. 

And today when the existence of the Protestant church is 
at stake, today when countless such beggars are once more 
presenting themselves in the hope of being given something 
because they perceive their poverty and because they cannot 
but fear that soon it may be no longer possible to receive any¬ 
thing here — we, as servants and members of the church, 
are obliged to confess, as did the two apostles of old, that we 
are not in a position to fulfill such wishes and expectations. 
“ Look on us — Silver and gold have we none! ” 

Truly our church has become quite poor — and I am not 
speaking primarily of physical possessions, although we lack 
these, too — but we have become so poor that we can no 
longer make anyone a present from an accumulated surplus 
of spiritual strength and inward wealth. We are simply no 


94 Here Stand I! 

longer able to create beautiful divine services and edifying 
hours of devotion from the riches of a peace-filled heart; 
we have neither time nor peace to work out spirited sermons 
or what used to be called so. We are again quite poor and 
wretched men, just as Jesus’ disciples and apostles were, and 
anyone who believes that we could do anything for him 
or give him anything is wrong. 

At first glance the situation may seem to us all to be a 
real misfortune; and I must confess that we pastors today 
feel something of the external oppression and the inward 
vexation under which Paul, for instance, had to carry on 
his work, as we learn when he writes how often he has been 
in danger among the false brethren. And as a Christian 
congregation we are beginning to understand how little 
we belong to those who walk upon the heights among hu¬ 
manity. All who would like to receive alms from us, all 
who look to us to fulfill their hopes and desires because they 
think we could perhaps give them something from our 
spiritual surplus — all these will turn away disappointed 
when they see how poor we are and how we ourselves must 
struggle for our bare life. 

A misfortune? —Certainly, humanly speaking, all that 
we as a church and as a Christian community are passing 
through today is a misfortune, an unsparing revelation of 
our helplessness and weakness. And yet it is no misfortune, 
but God’s gift and God’s strength, if in the midst of such 
human failure we dare to speak the word of faith, “ in the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” That is the only thing 
which is left us, but it is also the only thing which should 
be left us. 

We are now no longer concerned with hearing about 


95 


Look on Us! 

Christianity and its advantages and blessings. We have no 
time to draw conclusions from Jesus’ work and sufferings 
— for instance, how to shape our own work and bear our 
own sufferings. It is no longer a matter of good principles 
and pious thoughts, and certainly not of alms with which 
we may maintain our crippled existence for a time. But 
the one great question, on the answer to which hang life 
and death, is whether we can believe and whether we can 
put the greatest trust of which we are capable in the fact that 
the name Jesus Christ of Nazareth is more than the name 
of the founder of the Christian religion and more than the 
name of a man on whom we should model our lives; whether 
that name covers the identity of the living and active Lord 
by whose hand all our sorrow and all our distress are changed 
into strength and life; whether we can rely upon the fact 
that this same Jesus of Nazareth whom we know and of 
whom we know, is our Lord who knows us and who knows 
of us, and our Saviour who understands the full depths of 
our distress and heals all our infirmities. 

That is the question with which we are faced. It does 
not, however, come as a question to us, but as a word that 
demands faith and obedience: “ In the name of Jesus Christ 
of Nazareth, stand up and walk! ” 

It is easy to take alms. It needed no effort to accept what 
Christianity gave us as alms — elevating words and edifying 
thoughts — if we felt so inclined; the hands of our soul 
stretched out to receive them. But what is offered us here 
is more than we can grasp. We are to walk, we who have 
been lame since birth and have never yet borne our own 
weight. Our life is to be based upon a new and firm founda¬ 
tion, and yet all we know from our own experience is that 


96 Here Stand I! 

the foundation of our life and of our Christian trust in God 
is bursting asunder like ice floes cracking under a thaw, and 
that the only possible new foundation is “ the name of Jesus 
Christ of Nazareth.” 

Shall we say, “ Impossible!” or dare we trust that name? 
Peter took the lame man by the hand and helped him to 
believe. Jesus Christ himself takes us by the hand and leads 
us to his table so that we may there taste of his love and 
see how good the Lord is, so that we may there learn to be¬ 
lieve in his real, active and living presence. 

And so in conclusion, dear brethren, today I have a re¬ 
quest to make of you. We all need new strength and new 
assurance of faith; we need them all the more the greater 
becomes the distress which surrounds and oppresses us as a 
Christian community. The Lord Jesus Christ has given us a 
watchword and a sacrament to keep us beside him in the 
right faith. Therefore let us, as a church which professes to 
believe in Christ, hold fast to his word and to his sacrament, 
so that from out of the midst of the distress of these days 
there may be heard the song of praise of those who know 
the Saviour and have been helped by him. May God help 

US tO do SO! AMEN. 


THE STILLING OF THE TEMPEST 

(September 23,1934) 

And when he was entered into a ship his disciples followed him. 

And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was 
covered with the waves: but he was asleep. 

And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. 
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he 
arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. 


“ And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, inso¬ 
much that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was 
asleep.” 

That is the text given for today in the brethren’s little 
book of daily texts; and this quotation from the Scriptures 
casts illumination upon the events of today. The storm has 
broken, and if we have thought that the church of Christ 
was something in the nature of an island of the blest or a 
sanctuary of peace amid the raging sea of the times, the fanci¬ 
ful nature of such beliefs is now being brought home to us 
with unparalleled force. 

Our forefathers had a deep-rooted reason for speaking of 
the “ ship of the church.” They took this story from the gos¬ 
pel to mean that to follow Jesus must straightway lead us into 
storm and stress, not only in the case of the individual but 
of us all as his community and church. “ Thus it is,” says 
Luther; “ if Christ enters the ship the weather will not long 
remain calm, but a storm and tempest will arise.” 

97 


98 Here Stand I! 

That is why a church which lives in peace and quiet with 
the rest of the world has every reason to investigate whether 
the Lord Jesus Christ is with it in the ship. That of course 
is not to say that every storm that comes upon us is proof that 
Christ is with us. Rather must we ask ourselves today 
whether we have ridden into this tempest of our own ac¬ 
cord or whether we have ventured forth on God’s journey 
as did the disciples: “He entered into the ship and his dis¬ 
ciples followed him.” Does the peril which terrorizes us 
perhaps arise after all from the fact that we have wished 
to do something for ourselves, that we have run after our 
own ideas and plans, our own desires and dreams, instead of 
asking what Jesus wished us to do? Have we, perchance, 
trusting to our own knowledge and ability pursued an eccle¬ 
siastical policy while keeping human, all too human, ideals 
before our eyes? If we have, surely it is time to alter the 
ship’s course and try to get back as quickly as possible to the 
harbor which we left. And today a thousand voices bid us 
go back. 

Now we certainly cannot deny that in the course of the 
events and conflicts in which we have been involved for more 
than a year much self-assurance and self-confidence have 
come to light and have been active. As long as it did not seem 
too bad or too dangerous, we have often — and I make no 
exception of myself in this matter — tested and hardened 
our strength on the growing demands which have been 
made upon it; and there may have been some human pride 
and arrogance mixed with this exhilaration. Probably it 
was the same in the case of Jesus’ disciples so long as they 
thought that they, with their own strength, were able to 
cope with the elements. 


The Stilling of the Tempest 99 

But that feeling of confidence is now a thing of the past; 
we are no longer concerned with the question of possible 
means of escape, or of any “ means ” whatever. What does 
concern us now is the responsibility, that is, the question of 
whether we were following Jesus when we embarked upon 
this stormy voyage or whether we set out of our own accord 
on a lighthearted adventure in which ship and crew are 
now perishing. The question may well depress and dis¬ 
courage us. And when we recollect all that we have over¬ 
looked and neglected, all that we have left undone through 
fear or waywardness, accusing and tempting voices cry out 
within us, “ We can do no more: we perish! ” And then 
we face the disturbing problem: “ What if it were to turn 
out that the Lord Jesus had not been in favor of this trip ? 
And why should we think he was in favor of it ? ” 

And so, dear friends, we grow lukewarm and languor¬ 
ous. Have we done right ? Why not be content with what 
we have and with what no one takes away from us? No 
one interfered with our believing in Christ and comforting 
ourselves with his grace and leaving everything else to God’s 
guidance. What is the use, then, of all this fighting for the 
church ? Now the storm has arisen and shipwreck can no 
longer be averted. 

But the Lord Jesus Christ sleeps and is unmoved by our 
conflict and by the storm — yes, he is unaffected by it. For 
what do problems of external organization matter to him? 
These things have nothing at all to do with faith in him — 
and it is with faith that he is concerned. These are worldly 
matters — but he leaves all worldly matters to those whose 
business they are. 

It does not sound evil and yet it is the voice of the tempter 


100 


Here Stand I! 

which whispers that we dare hope for no help from the 
Lord Jesus Christ for the church in such a time of trial! 
Did he really say, “ All power is given unto me in heaven and 
in earth ” ? Has he who came to save sinners really time 
and inclination for our church troubles ? Are not all such 
problems included in his saying, “ Who hath made me a 
judge or a divider over you P ” And so the soft voices mur¬ 
mur and whisper, entice and woo, when the storm dies down 
for a moment before breaking out with renewed violence: “ I 
will have you know that I draw conclusions as relentlessly 
as necessity dictates. Anyone who refuses to be silent and 
step aside I must force to do so.” And we stand there power¬ 
less and see no way of escape. “We perish! ” The storm 
which rages around us, the shipwreck of the church with 
which we are faced, these strike terror to our human hearts 
and make us forget belief to see nothing but the danger and 
our own inability to banish it. 

The disciples had exactly the same experience, dear 
brethren. As fishermen they were expert boatmen, and it 
was their human and earthly duty to steer the ship and cope 
with the storm. What did their troubles matter to the man 
who lay sleeping in their midst ? What concern of his was 
it if they failed in their duty? After all, he was not there 
to help them out of the difficulties of their calling and show 
them, the experienced seamen, a way to safety. To be sure, he 
was the Master and they were the disciples; but they were 
not concerned with that at the moment, but with the fact 
that their nautical skill could do no more and their boat 
was sinking. Then, in their terror which saw no hope of 
rescue, they wakened the sleeping passenger: “Lord, save 
us, we perish! ” 


The Stilling of the Tempest ioi 

“ Men of little faith ” Jesus called them because their 
terror was so great and despair was so near, because they 
themselves did not fully believe in the help for which they 
cried. He hearkened to that cry and heard in it the faith, 
the “little faith” which was wrestling with death and 
which clung to him as a last hope. He responded to that 
frightened cry of distress in a way that transcended their 
pleading and their understanding, and proved to this “ little 
faith ” that he was the Lord whom even wind and sea must 
obey. 

We are in a similarly desperate position. We are like 
these fishermen in that our distress is at its height and all 
that this or that individual proposes is the counsel of ab¬ 
solute perplexity and despair: secession, free church, return 
to Rome, toleration of unchristian tyranny or whatever it 
may be — at bottom it is all nothing but a jumping over¬ 
board and a faithless acceptance of the inevitable shipwreck. 

But it must not be so! For is the Lord Jesus Christ not 
with us in the ship ? Since this voyage began, we have felt 
and been aware of his presence on many a cherished occa¬ 
sion and his word has been near us and has strengthened 
us. Do we no longer trust in him just because the storm has 
grown to a hurricane and he is asleep? Yes, he sleeps and 
acts as though he were not interested in the distress of his 
followers; yes, he acts as though we must manage for our¬ 
selves or perish. 

Why does he do this? In the first place, assuredly, so 
that we may end by seeing clearly that it is not we who 
rule the storm. Plenty of people have endeavored to find 
a way of escape. There have even been men foolish enough 
to order peace and quiet for the church; but mere orders 


102 


Here Stand I! 

cannot stop a storm. And it is good and salutary for 
us to be brought to the limits of our human power, and for 
the pride and arrogance which imagine they can usurp 
God’s rule to be replaced by a genuine humility which bows 
obediently to the will of God. 

The Lord Jesus Christ sleeps so that we may really be 
shown our limitations. And he sleeps so that it may at last 
be seen whether we have acquired at least the beginning of 
a faith which turns from despair to him. Things are now 
becoming serious so that we may at last act seriously. We 
must not be content with seeing in him the Master from 
whom we as disciples learn what he says to us and what 
example he sets us in his life; we must flee to him as our 
Lord and wake him: “ Lord, save us; we can do no more; 
we perish! ” 

If that recourse to the Lord is indeed the fruit of our dis¬ 
tress and despair and terror, dear friends, then blessed be all 
our distress and despair, blessed be all our terror! For he is the 
Lord whom heaven and earth must obey, and at the same time 
he is the Lord who listens to the anguished cry of faith, how¬ 
ever little and weak this faith may be. He can help where 
we can no longer even hope. 

Therefore let us today look not upon the tempest and the 
raging sea and not upon the nutshell of a vessel which is 
called the church, whose spars are now bursting asunder, 
but let us look only upon him who is called the Lord and 
who is the Lord. He is asleep ? Oh no, he is only waiting 
to help us, he is only waiting for us to wake him; for his 
eyes are open unto faith, and his ear attends unto prayer. 
And we shall yet learn the truth of the hymn: “ It will sur¬ 
prise you what the Lord will do.” Lord, save us! amen. 


THE FATHER’S WILL 

( October, 1934) 

And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the 
people came unto him as he was teaching. . . . 

And Jesus answered and said unto them: . . . 

But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, 
and said. Son, go work today in my vineyard. 

He answered and said, I will not; but afterward he repented and went. 

And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I 
go, sir; and went not. 

Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The 
first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the 
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. 

For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: 
but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, re¬ 
pented not afterward, that ye might believe him. — Matt. 21:23, 24, 28-32 

❖ 

Last Sunday we held a service of intercession for the per¬ 
secuted Protestants in Wurtemberg. In the interval things 
there have not improved a whit. The lawful bishop of the 
province has been deposed by an unlawful and unchristian 
synod. He and his fellow workers have been deprived, with 
the aid of secular authority, of their personal liberty and 
have been forbidden to act in an official capacity. The oppres¬ 
sion which lies over the community of the faithful continues 
in undiminished force. We are already receiving new re¬ 
ports of the violent attack of the anti-Christian forces on 
the church in Bavaria; there, too, a reign of terror is being 
set up, while the public is being misled by lies and half-truths. 
The bishop of Bavaria also has been deposed and robbed of 

103 


104 Here Stand I! 

his personal freedom, and that so-called “ union ” which is 
destroying a church already united in creed and constitu¬ 
tion has been carried out with the assistance of temporal 
power against the unanimous will of the Protestant com¬ 
munity. 

It is dreadful and infuriating to see a few unprincipled 
men who call themselves “ church government ” destroy the 
church and persecute the fellowship of Jesus; the hour 
of Gethsemane has struck, and the truth of the words, “ This 
is your hour and the power of darkness! ” is again being 
demonstrated. It is the hour when a single Peter, perhaps, 
seizes his sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest’s 
servant; but at its conclusion the disciples flee terrified into 
the night, into the darkness of perplexity and bitterness of 
soul. The end is drawing nigh. 

What hopes we had for the work of the Protestant church 
in our newly united nation! As the young men of Emmaus 
said, “We trusted that it had been he that should have re¬ 
deemed Israel.” Did not we also trust that the message of 
Jesus Christ would crown the labor of these years ? Now, 
however, the bitterness of disappointed hope surges over 
us like a mighty stream; and again we have the old story: 
men with swords and staves, the secret betrayal and the 
treacherous kiss, calumniation and false witness, temporal 
and ecclesiastical judgment and the cross. Then we no 
longer understand God’s ways and see nothing before us 
but darkness and death. 

I admit that it is very natural, dear friends, that in our 
impotence we should rebuke the traitor or traitors, should 
sever ourselves sharply and clearly from them and condemn 
them. Nor is anything else possible. It must be so, and 


The Father’s Will 105 

we cannot dissociate ourselves strongly enough or plainly 
enough from what is happening today in the church. But 
there is a danger connected with this action, and that dan¬ 
ger grows from day to day. It is we who today have to repre¬ 
sent the claim of the Lord Jesus Christ on the church. We 
have to make known his command that no other will save. 
He alone must be recognized in the Christian community, 
and woe to us if we should say, “ I will not! ” Then indeed 
we should incur the penalty referred to in his words: “ Who¬ 
soever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before 
my Father which is in heaven.” 

Very well, then. We will profess our faith in him and 
not deny him; we will have Christ and no other to be the 
Lord; we sincerely and earnestly hope that his will may 
be done on earth as in heaven. And now we see day by 
day how injustice and violence are being perpetrated in his 
name, how the spirit of deceit and calumniation stalks 
abroad and holds sway, and we rebel in legitimate wrath and 
with growing passion. We have enough to do to protest 
against all the attacks on the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus 
Christ; in the end we cannot get away from this attitude of 
protest and defensive struggle. The Lord Jesus Christ com¬ 
mands, and many are the voices that call out a refusal to 
his orders. “ But you must not say no to him; you must say 
yes and obey him; he is the Lord, and no other can be! ” — 
thus we call and plead and cry to those who refuse, in our 
anxiety for the church, in our anxiety for our nation. 

Do we see the danger ? Or do we fail to notice how per¬ 
sonal desire, personal passion, personal pride are more and 
more flowing into our creed; how our pious self-confidence 
is crowding out our faith; how our need of recompense is 


106 Here Stand I! 

driving out love; how the human aims for which we strive 
are pushing Christian hope aside? The danger lies in the 
fact that we profess faith in Christ. We accept Christ’s sov¬ 
ereignty— but we are scarcely conscious that we are only 
saying we accept, while in reality we are fighting more and 
more passionately for our own honor, for our own ideas, our 
own rights and our own plans. All at once we stand where 
stood the high priests and elders with whom Jesus had to 
deal — “I go, sir; and went not.” 

The great temptation in this hour of darkness is to lose 
sight of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to let our confession 
of faith degenerate into a conflict between those who accept 
and those who refuse. But the real and ultimate issue is in 
the meantime pushed more and more into the background 
and forgotten. 

It is certain that in the story told in our gospel lesson Jesus 
does not mean to commend in any way those who refuse 
to do their Father’s bidding. Rather he wishes to rid those 
who agree of the great and dangerous delusion that merely 
by agreeing they have already fulfilled the will of the Father. 

And so today we are called to reflection. The fact that we 
as a confessional church accept the sovereignty of the Lord 
Jesus Christ obliges us, and us in particular, to render real 
obedience to his will. We must guard anxiously against 
remaining content with our acceptance and imagining that 
we cannot now go wrong, that we are on the right road and 
that our goal is certain. Pious self-righteousness has just 
as little promise of reaching its aim as any other self-made 
road chosen by unrepentant man. We must not pride our¬ 
selves on the fact that we are fighting for the truth; rather 
must we see that we ourselves bow humbly and obediently 


The Father’s Will 107 

to God’s truth, lest, to quote Paul’s words, “ when we have 
preached to others we are ourselves cast away.” That is why 
we in the confessional church need to do nothing so much 
as to pay new heed to the word of God, which is meant for 
us personally: “Thou art the man!” We must pay new 
heed to the hearing of the word, the hearing which becomes 
obedience to the word. 

That is precisely the other side in this struggle which we 
are appointed to carry on: God is calling the devout, the true 
Christians to repentance; he wishes to open our eyes to what 
we have neglected and left undone in spite of all our well 
meant promises to do his bidding. Would this attack of an 
unchristian world on the prerogatives of the church have 
been even conceivable if we had really done our Christian 
duty? Are the experiences through which we are passing 
actually only a quarrel which is being forced upon us who 
are innocent, or are they a punishment inflicted by God on a 
Christian world which had become indifferent and lazy, 
rich and complacent ? And who among us dare exonerate 
himself from the common guilt ? 

Satan has a right — and he has this right from God whom 
he, too, must serve — to harass and torment us. We can¬ 
not simply overlook the accusations which he levels against 
us. Our church was dull and lukewarm and dead. And 
how was it in our personal lives ? Did all our fear and love 
really belong to God or to Mammon; did we live for our 
neighbor or for ourselves and our own concerns; did we 
hope for the coming of God’s kingdom or for the achieve¬ 
ment of our own prosperity ? And how is it in these matters 
now? . . . 

Dear brethren, we cannot fight Satan by letting him do 


108 Here Stand I! 

as he likes with us; we cannot stand up for the sovereignty of 
God in the church and in our nation as long as we our¬ 
selves withdraw from that sovereignty. It is not enough to 
promise to do God’s bidding if at the same time we are like 
the son who said, “ Sir, I go,” and went not. The whole 
fight for the church becomes an empty squabble and em¬ 
bittered grumbling unless it is carried on by a community 
which is repentant and can therefore act from faith and in 
obedience. 

God does not need us to build his kingdom; he has other 
ways of doing that. He does it with the publicans and har¬ 
lots when they hear the call to repentance and are converted 
— and all his tables are filled. And he can use us only when 
we bow to his judgment and no longer try to enforce what we 
call our “ good right,” as we should like to do again and 
again. We shall not have a really good conscience in the 
suffering and strife of these days until we have humbled 
ourselves before God in the knowledge of our own guilt 
and sins of omission, and until we have received from his 
forgiveness the strength of a new obedience which seeks to 
do his will and command alone. 

Repentance: heart-searching and conversion. However 
strange it may sound, that is the Lord’s call to us in this con¬ 
flict, so that we may not carry on the struggle as our own 
cause in lighthearted self-confidence, while talking of pro¬ 
fessing and confessing our faith in him. Now, amid the 
satanic temptations of this period of persecution, we can 
less than at any time dispense with going quietly apart and 
mercilessly submitting our own will and our own passion 
to the will, the jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
then, under his guidance, making a new beginning in faith, 


The Father’s Will 109 

in obedience to his word and in the confidence that he him¬ 
self will carry on his cause. 

Rebirth in the Lord does not end the struggle, nor does it 
cause the suffering to be taken from us; we may even have 
to fight much harder than ever, and it may be that only 
then will we really begin to suffer. Obedience to the Lord 
Jesus Christ means, once and for all, fighting and suffering. 
But when the unhappy dissension between consenting to do 
God’s will and not doing it has been overcome in the strength 
of forgiveness received, when lip service is replaced by the 
service of action and life, then though the battle still rages 
we are removed from the strife, and in the midst of suffer¬ 
ing we are lifted out of distress. Where repentance and 
faith are there is the kingdom of heaven, there we have 
peace with God, there we can joyfully say, “We glory in 
tribulations also.” Therefore let us ask God for a penitent 
and obedient heart: “ Do thou cover up the days of my life 
that are past and guide me in the days that are yet to come, 
O Lord! ” amen. 


UNLESS YE REPENT. . . . 


{Day of Penance, 1934 ) 

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose 
blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 

And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were 
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? 

I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. 

Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think 
ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? 

I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. 

He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vine¬ 
yard; and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. 

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I 
come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth 
it the ground? 

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall 
dig about it, and dung it: 

And if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. 

— Lu\e 13:1-9 


❖ 

Dear fellow penitents, we could shrug our shoulders and 
lightheartedly refuse to listen to any suggestion that we take 
the first half of this gospel lesson seriously. Obviously Jesus 
is here attacking an old Jewish popular belief or superstition 
which has long ceased to interest us. 

When an accident occurs we do not think of inquiring 
into the guilt of those who have been injured in it. But to 
the pious Jew of Christ’s time that was a grave and inevitable 
question. He recovered his inward equilibrium only after 
he had cleared up the matter of guilt, for to him that was 
the answer to the question: “ Why ? Why did God, who is 


no 


Unless Ye Repent. ... in 

just, do that? ” But we no longer ask this question; as a 
rule we are satisfied when we know the relations and causes 

— when we know that things had to happen thus. 

That, however, is far from saying that we have made prog¬ 
ress, for we are by no means sure about that old question 
of guilt; only with us it does not crop up at every moment 
and in each everyday event. The lightning must strike in 
our immediate neighborhood if we are to hear the thunder 
which follows it as the voice of God, or our attention must 
be particularly directed in some other way to the fact that 
in what is happening we may possibly be dealing with God 
himself. 

If we are today, in the midst of the events of these last 
weeks and days, in the midst of the judgment which is be¬ 
ing passed on our Protestant church, holding a day of pen¬ 
ance, then the question of guilt — which is the question 
whether God’s judgment is being expressed in these events 

— is surely coming to life. 

Today and here I need not speak particularly of the dis¬ 
aster which has occurred. It is as plain to our eyes as was Pi¬ 
late’s brutal act or the fall of the tower of Siloam to the eyes of 
Jesus’ contemporaries. And because it is the church which 
is concerned, because it is obvious that violence was here used 
against the church, and that the tower of the church threatens 
to fall — if it has not already fallen — our generation is in¬ 
clined to think that we are witnessing and experiencing a 
clear, unmistakable instance of God’s judgment. Conse¬ 
quently we are also likely to draw our conclusions, to talk 
of guilt and to ascribe this guilt to those who are visibly 
affected by this divine judgment. 

Indeed, I feel as though we Protestant Christians were 


112 


Here Stand I! 


now seeking to restore our spiritual equilibrium by thinking: 
“The question of guilt has been cleared up. Everything 
had to happen as it has happened. Now we, who know 
we are guiltless with regard to this disaster, can look for¬ 
ward to peace.” This very collapse of our church, which 
may certainly be a great misfortune, offers us an oppor¬ 
tunity, if we wish for one, to withdraw from the melee 
and save ourselves as innocent nonparticipants. The mo¬ 
ment we think in this manner, however, we are on a false 
trail. The moment we make up our minds to accept the 
fact that God himself has here pronounced his judgment 
we have failed to recognize that it is God — the living God 
— who is filling the office of judge. We imagine that we 
are vindicated by the fact that God has punished the others. 
We look upon the whole affair as the judgment of a divine 
arbitrator who punishes the wicked and rewards the good. 
Jesus, however, has most emphatically forbidden us to think 
thus: “Nay; but except ye repent — except ye become con¬ 
verted— ye will all likewise perish.” God is no arbitrator; 
he does not deal with us in such a way that we dare say, 
“ The history of humanity is the judgment of humanity.” 
If this were so we should be well off today; we in the church 
should suddenly find ourselves in the position of those “ who 
had always said so ” and were right in the end. But mean¬ 
while we are forgetting that it is the living God who 
acts here, and that we ourselves are not safe from him for 
a moment. The fact that we were right does not help us 
today. 

God has pronounced a judgment, but that fact alone does 
not settle the question of the judgment he will pronounce on 
us. That judgment does not depend on whether we have 


Unless Ye Repent. ... 113 

acted better or more justly than the others; it depends — 
quite apart from all considerations of “ better ” or “ worse ” 

— simply on whether we are as God wants us to be. “ More 
or less,” “ better or worse,” are words which have no mean¬ 
ing in this case, for God’s judgment has not the slightest 
connection with any human summing-up or comparison. 

Dear brethren, from time immemorial the favorite sin of 
us pious and respectable people has been to make ourselves 
judges and to declare ourselves innocent while condemning 
others or proving that others have been condemned by God. 

Our old church has been found wanting in many respects 

— and God has sent a judgment upon it. Of that there is 
no doubt. And the new church which has destroyed the 
old one and taken its place has likewise been found wanting, 
and God’s judgment has fallen upon it with terrifying sud¬ 
denness. Of that there is likewise no doubt. And what is 
the conclusion we draw ? Are we, the Christian community, 
we who hear God’s word, now people who have been vindi¬ 
cated, people to whom God’s promise and Christ’s pledge 
rightly belong? “Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all 
likewise perish.” It is God with whom we have to do. The 
lightning has struck our own house and we ourselves have 
been spared, and so we must surely read this one lesson from 
the divine judgment which is before our eyes: “ Unless ye 
repent! ” Therefore repent and be converted. 

The word “ repentance ” has, I admit, depreciated greatly 
in value today; indeed it seems as though it has been out¬ 
lawed and proscribed in our Protestant church. And the 
terrible thing about what has happened in the church at this 
time is that there has been no visible sign of what God’s 
word calls “repentance” and “conversion.” As a child 


114 Here Stand I! 

I learned that to repent meant to recognize one’s sins, to 
confess, be sorry and cry for mercy. But we continue to act 
as though what had happened was merely a disaster to be 
accepted. We go on living as though things must come 
right again of themselves. We still take the attitude that as 
far as we personally are concerned we have nothing at all 
to do with this divine judgment. 

And all this is happening in the church of Luther, where 
we are constantly hearing and pronouncing the name of 
the German Reformer, but where we anxiously conceal the 
fact that the first thesis with which the Reformation began 
runs as follows: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ 
says, ‘ Repent! ’ he means the whole life of his followers to 
be repentance.” 

There is no faith without repentance, and there is no 
church without repentance. It is useless for us as a “ Con¬ 
fessional Church ” to condemn the doctrine of human pride 
and yet to remain proud ourselves. And there is no sense in 
our refusing to listen to Paul’s doctrine of sin and inferiority 
if we are convinced, even without hearing it, that the word 
“ sin ” has no meaning for us. And as far as we are con¬ 
cerned, the great danger of this moment is that we should 
think that the call to repentance does not concern us, that 
this judgment of God is not meant for us, and that we may 
carry our heads high and talk righteously of the sins of 
others. We must not — we dare not — do so, or all will be 
lost. 

We are dealing with the living God — no, the living God 
is dealing with us. And to know that means to know that 
the judgment of this living God can fall upon us, too, at any 
moment; to know that means to stand as penitents before 


Unless Ye Repent. ... 115 

that God, to stand as men and women who have justly 
deserved God’s judgment. 

We still stand — and a Protestant church of Christ still 
stands — in the midst of our nation; there are still congre¬ 
gations on whom the Lord Jesus Christ works with his 
word. But behold the parable of the fig tree. The tree 
stands in the middle of the vineyard, broad and strong and 
healthy. It does not suspect that critical eyes have been 
watching it for years; it does not suspect that it owes its life 
to patience and to grace alone; it does not suspect that its 
doom has already been pronounced: “Cut it down! Why 
cumbereth it the ground ? ” It will still stand there tomor¬ 
row and the day after tomorrow — and yet it is condemned 
to death. The day will come when the patience and mercy 
which it thus takes for granted are at an end, and the man 
who tends it and digs about it and dungs it will take the ax 
and carry out the sentence. 

The fact that we are still here, that there is still a Chris¬ 
tian community — even today, after Pilate’s cruelties have 
been repeated and the tower of Siloam has again killed eight¬ 
een and more, without harming us — is really no proof that 
we were better than the others. But it is a proof that God’s 
patience and mercy toward us are not yet at an end, and 
that God is once more giving us an opportunity to thank him 
for his mercy and patience. 

None of us knows how long this state of affairs will last. 
No one can say when the Lord Jesus Christ will lay aside 
the spade and take up the ax. We have no promise that the 
gospel will remain available for all time to us and to our 
nation. We have no pledge that Luther’s work will endure. 

One thing alone we know for certain: today we hear 


Here Stand I! 


ii 6 

again the message of God’s mercy and patience, the message 
that is rightly called “ good tidings ” even though it begins 
with the call to repentance and leads us again and again 
to repentance. Our salvation does not lie in the fact that we 
are satisfied with ourselves and have given ourselves up to 
the alluring fancy that God, too, will surely be satisfied 
with us. But our salvation begins with our recognizing, 
from what the Lord Jesus Christ does to us, what God’s 
judgment is with regard to us. It is an annihilating verdict: 
“ Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? ” 

When we hear that sentence we no longer know what to 
do, and we cannot continue to walk in the way of our desire. 
When we hear that sentence we must stand still and listen 
to discover whether God has not a word of mercy, of un¬ 
deserved grace left for us. On that word our life and our 
church depend. And, behold, the call to repentance, “ Re¬ 
pent ye! ” becomes the word of grace in the mouth of him 
who pleads for us: “ Come unto me! Lord, let it alone still 
a little while, that I may do my work on it.” 

Jesus Christ — thou alone art the light of our hope! amen. 


POWER 

(Fourth Sunday after Epiphany ) 

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but 
of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and 
they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not 
be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of 
the same: 

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is 
evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, 
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs 
be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’s sake. 

For, for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending 
continually upon this very thing. 

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to 
whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. 

Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath 
fulfilled the law. 

For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not 
steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any 
other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself. 

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

— Rom. 13:1-10 


When we look back at the thirtieth of January and remem¬ 
ber what a vast amount of tenacious energy and passionate 
will power it has taken to set up the Third Reich and to 
carry it through these difficult years, the words of today’s 


“7 


n8 Here Stand I! 

scripture lesson may seem to us extremely cold and unin¬ 
spiring. Perhaps we expect a text in which the gratitude 
and joy of a nation which has been given a new beginning 
are more clearly and radiantly reflected: “ Hitherto hath the 
Lord helped us.” 

And in truth we have reason enough to spread abroad this 
acknowledgment of God’s help, and openly to express our 
gratitude for God’s guidance, for there is no doubt that, 
according to human calculation, things might have turned 
out quite differently if God had not watched protectingly 
over us. But for that we would many a time have been over¬ 
whelmed by destruction. But on the other hand, today, 
gathered together as a Christian congregation in the pres¬ 
ence of God to hear God’s word, we cannot possibly conceal 
from ourselves the disappointments and cares which weigh 
us down when we look at our church. 

Many of our hopes have been shattered in these two years. 
We see more and more clearly how there is being propagated 
a new paganism which wishes to have nothing to do with 
the Saviour who was crucified for us, while the church which 
acknowledges that Saviour as its only Lord is reproached with 
being an enemy of the state and has difficulty in obtaining a 
hearing for its most earnest assurances to the contrary. 

And it is hard, bitter hard, for us to bear this ignominy. 
Our good conscience rebels violently when in one breath 
people call us criminals and traitors to our nation. And 
we find it rather difficult to accept the fact that a Dr. Dinter 
and others should be allowed to harangue the people and 
to canvass for their anti-Christian views, while we are com¬ 
manded to keep silent in public. 

When we think of these things we are moved by a burning, 


Power 


119 

passionate desire to see the church of Christ find the justice 
to which we believe we have a claim in its name. And here 
again Paul’s words, which we have just read, seem to us color¬ 
less and far too objective. 

But just because things are thus, dear friends, just because 
there flares up within us this antagonism between our en¬ 
thusiastic patriotism and our passionate desire for the church’s 
welfare, just because we do not rightly know whether joy 
or sorrow has the greater right or whether we are nearer 
tears than laughter, it is good and indeed necessary for us 
to bow to the dispassionate objectivity of the word of God, 
in whose presence all human enthusiasm and all human pas¬ 
sion must alike be silent. For in this word of God the ques¬ 
tion which confronts us today — the question of the rela¬ 
tion of the church to the state, of the Christian community 
to the secular powers — is, so far as it affects our conduct, 
unequivocally and authoritatively answered. And the ad¬ 
vantage of this answer is that it holds good independently of 
all our pros and cons, and without regard to enthusiasm or 
disappointment on our part, just because it is the incorrupti¬ 
ble, self-assured and utterly objective word of God. 

It is worth while for us to remember today that it is the 
government of the Emperor Nero which the apostle has 
before his eyes while he writes, “ There is no power but of 
God.” Manifestly the value of the government of any state 
is here made independent of human criticism as of human 
approval; nay, more, it is not even the moral worth or worth¬ 
lessness of the rulers which is the decisive factor here. 

To be sure, we discriminate. Here, too, we measure ac¬ 
cording to our standards and are inclined to ascribe a higher 
value to a power which is in harmony with our desires and 


120 


Here Stand I! 

ideas than to a government hostile to them. That is only 
natural and cannot well be otherwise. But in reality our 
judgment here is false because all power receives its author¬ 
ity directly from God. We can therefore neither deduct 
anything from it by setting our disapproval against God’s 
approval, nor can we add anything to it by strengthening 
God’s approval with ours. 

The authority peculiar to the state is as an ordinance of 
God subjected to no human conditions whatever and holds 
good independently of our approval or disapproval; it is so 
great that we can neither increase nor lessen it. The ruling 
power in the state is “ God’s minister ” who is granted full 
authority and instructions by God and is responsible to him 
— to him, not to us. 

That is an austere statement; there is nothing romantic 
about it. And even though we must admit that it would 
be quite impossible to speak of the authority of the state 
in higher terms or to depict it with greater majesty than 
Paul does here when he says that power is held “ by the grace 
of God,” we miss certain cordial strains; we miss the warm, 
personal, human relationship. For here, as you can see, the 
apostle speaks only of subordination or insubordination, of 
recompense or punishment. And is it not the height of 
austerity to say that the duty of the supreme power in the 
state is, by God’s command, merely to protect the good and 
punish the evil? 

It has been well said that we have got beyond that primi¬ 
tive conception according to which the state is based upon 
might and its duty is to enforce the law. We have grown 
familiar with the national state, which serves the nation, 
which looks after the nation’s safety and cares for its wel¬ 
fare and culture. 


Power 121 

The relation between us and the kind of state described 
by the words “ authority ” and “ obedience ” will not satisfy 
us in the long run. We should like a direct, personal re¬ 
lation of trust and love, a relation that means an enriching, 
a deepening and broadening of our life in the state, just as 
is true of the family, where to the divine commandment to 
“ honor thy father and thy mother ” love is added to pa¬ 
rental authority and confidence to childish obedience. And 
then we see the truth of the old saying, “ The good will of 
men and the favor of God — it is well if one has both to¬ 
gether.” 

The only danger is that we may easily fall into thinking 
that the authority of the parents, like that of the ruling 
power, is based upon our human trust instead of on God’s 
ordinance and commandment as it really is and inviolably 
remains. And then it is only one short step farther along 
the same road for us to ask that parents and the ruling power 
serve our will and desire and not God’s commandment; and 
another small step for us to claim the right to oppose their 
authority and to resist it when our expectations are disap¬ 
pointed. 

That is why God’s word declares so clearly that the au¬ 
thority of the ruling power is based upon God’s ordinance 
and that its real and permanent duty consists in God’s man¬ 
date to administer the law in his name and to protect the 
work of the good man and resist the actions of the evildoer. 
As the “ minister of God ” it must answer to its Lord how 
far and how justly it is fulfilling this commission. 

For us as Christians and as a church of the gospel only 
one attitude is possible here: to accept God’s will without 
argument and honor his ordinance, not from motives of 
calculating shrewdness but, as Paul says, “ for conscience’s 


122 


Here Stand I! 

sake,” just because it is God’s ordinance, because it is his 
good and gracious will that the powers that be rule in his 
name and under his commission and that we bow to their 
authority and conscientiously yield to them our willing 
obedience. 

But, however simple that interpretation may sound, one 
difficulty seems to be completely overlooked here. Is it really 
the case that rulers are “ not a terror to good works, but to the 
evil ” ? Has Paul, has the Christian community in Rome, 
not had an entirely different experience under Nero ? And 
does not the care which weighs us down originate in the 
very fact that we are convinced that we are right and yet 
see ourselves unjustly numbered with the transgressors ? 

But that consideration does not cause God’s ordinance to 
be repealed, and so we remain conscientiously bound to give 
it what is its due: tribute and obedience and respect — and, 
if need be, body and soul. 

As long as we call Jesus Christ our Lord, as long as we ac¬ 
knowledge God’s will to be wholly inviolable, we have no 
right to be disobedient because of the injustice done us. 
Against such injustice there is only one weapon. “ Do that 
which is good, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you 
and persecute you! ” 

Of course, we may perhaps also have a right to disobedi¬ 
ence; but this right may be exercised only when we are asked 
to do wrong, and then it is a duty, for “ one must obey God 
rather than men.” But even this duty does not release us 
from that other duty “ to render unto Caesar what is 
Caesar’s.” 

Thus Christian faith and loyalty to the state have belonged 


Power 123 

together from the time of pagan Rome till the present day; 
for where the gospel is held in esteem there God’s ordinance 
is also honored. That is why a Protestant Christian who is 
an enemy to the state, or a Protestant church which is an 
enemy to the state, is a contradiction; for even if all enthu¬ 
siasm and all natural love for the state were extinguished 
God’s word and command would continue in force: “ Owe 
no man anything.” 

In any case, we also know the limitations of all state 
power; we know that all earthly kingdoms and rulers are 
formed according to the image of this world which passes 
away, that the kingdom of God to which we are called is 
not a kingdom of this world, and that no kingdom of this 
world can be made into the kingdom of God. Therefore 
we have no enthusiasm for any earthly state and therefore 
we do not dream of the return of a golden age. 

But we are grateful to God that he has not left his fallen 
creation without his ordinance, that with the sword his grace 
has given to the powers that be he fights against human sin, 
so that the message of his kingdom — Christ’s message — 
may continue to be spread abroad and the fellowship of the 
faithful may meet together as an assembly in which love 
and not only law holds sway; in which God’s will is con¬ 
firmed in freedom and which will thus point the way to 
the present and eternal kingdom of God. 

And while we thank God today for having given our na¬ 
tion a government, and for having through it preserved order 
and peace for us, at the same time we ask him to guide and 
rule our Fiihrer and his counselors, our nation and our 
church, in such a way that his kingdom may come and be 
a reality among us. amen. 


FELLOWSHIP IN THE GOSPEL 


(Fifth Sunday after Epiphany ) 

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 

Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 

For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in 
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 

Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my 
heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the 
gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. 

For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of 
Jesus Christ. 

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge 
and in all judgment: 

That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and 
without offense till the day of Christ; 

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto 
the glory and praise of God. — Phil. 1:3-11 

❖ 

We and our Protestant church are in a rather peculiar po¬ 
sition at the present time. We seem to be waiting for a de¬ 
cision which will put an end to long uncertainty; we feel 
that it cannot be long now before it becomes clear whether 
the future of our church is to be life or death, freedom or 
more bitter slavery, peace or renewed struggle. 

Many a time already we have thought that the clouds were 
about to clear away and let the sun break through; but then 
of a sudden everything became impenetrably dark again. 

124 


Fellowship in the Gospel 125 

And today no man can say whether the decision will be 
made at all, when it will be given or what form it will take. 

However that may be and whatever may be the outcome, 
dear friends, the present situation is fraught with temptation 
for us and for the whole Protestant church in our nation. 
And the temptation to which we are in danger of succumb¬ 
ing is this: that we may stare as though hypnotized and 
crippled at the decision with the making of which we have 
nothing at all to do; that we may regard this decision con¬ 
cerning the life or death, the freedom or slavery, the peace 
or strife of our church as that on which everything ultimately 
depends. Such a situation might very well end by making 
us tired and dispirited under the strain of anxious suspense. 

When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the congrega¬ 
tion at Philippi he saw himself and his mission faced with 
the same temptation. Neither he nor any of his followers 
knew what the next day would bring forth. The hands 
of the apostle himself were tied, for he was a prisoner. The 
decision about life and death lay in the hands of the Roman 
emperor. Notwithstanding, in this period of utter uncer¬ 
tainty and supreme perplexity and weakness, Paul wrote a 
letter which not only breathes strength and confidence and 
joy in every line but even rises to exultation: “Rejoice in 
the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice! ” 

And yet the cause which gave rise to this letter was slight 
and insignificant enough: the Christian church at Philippi 
had — as on a former occasion — sent their teacher a gift 
of money to help support him. But Paul sees in their action 
a proof not only of love and friendship but of good work 
begun in his congregation which bears within it the promise 
of growth and perfection. The trivial act becomes great and 


126 Here Stand I! 

the insignificant deed important. For this beginning points 
to an end. And Paul has no anxiety with regard to this 
end; on the contrary, he speaks of himself as “ being con¬ 
fident of this very thing ”! 

It will be well, dear friends, if we, too, consciously and 
resolutely take no notice of the coming decisions, however 
seriously they may affect us. In Paul’s day everything was 
at stake and it was truly a matter of life and death. It will 
be well for us, too, to turn our eyes to the work which has 
begun among us and which is filling us with gratitude and 

j°y- 

And the work is indeed no small thing. In any case it 
is much more than we had dared to hope. The fact that 
not one of the many hundreds of our brethren who have 
been driven from office has had to suffer want with his fam¬ 
ily, the fact that helping hands have been stretched out from 
all sides — and that not only once, but again and again dur¬ 
ing many months — is surely reason for joy and gratitude. 
For who would have thought that there was still so much 
sympathy and unity of spirit in our poor church, which has 
been so split up and has grown so lukewarm ? 

We must not, however, be content to stop at thanking one 
another, and rejoicing together because of this sympathy and 
cooperative spirit! There is something — or at least the be¬ 
ginnings of something — greater and more important be¬ 
hind this spirit, something that unlocks our hearts to others 
and opens our hands to give; and that something is what 
Paul calls “ fellowship in the gospel.” 

We are learning once more what that fellowship is and 
what it means. It is again being borne in upon us that the 
congregation of the gospel, the church of Jesus Christ, is a 


Fellowship in the Gospel 127 

reality in our midst which includes and sustains each one of 
us personally. 

If the gifts for the alleviation of the distress in our congre¬ 
gations are flowing in freely, if in many places the church 
accommodation has become too small for the men and 
women who wish to hear God’s word, if — even in “ dead ” 
areas — there are again assembling at the table of the Lord 
whole congregations desirous of having their hunger satis¬ 
fied and their thirst quenched, if here and there the Scrip¬ 
tures are once more being honored and read in the homes of 
the people — these things are but the beginnings of a new 
church fellowship which is being called forth by the glad 
tidings. 

And we rejoice because of this new spirit of union. Our 
hymns sound fuller and more joyously, our united prayer 
rises with greater strength and more conviction from our 
hearts, and we are at home in a way quite different from that 
of the past in the “ fellowship of the gospel.” 

All this, however, is not happening by chance, and it cannot 
be separated from the peculiar distress into which God has 
led us. He is using this time of trouble to teach us once more 
that we must not only listen to his word now and again, but 
that we must live for it if it is to bestow its living strength 
on us. 

For the Philippians, Paul’s imprisonment made their fel¬ 
lowship in the gospel become a reality; for us, the oppression 
which in many places weighs upon the Protestant congrega¬ 
tions wakens us to our common responsibility and forces us 
to open our ears to the message which God is sending us to¬ 
day. Under such circumstances what, humanly speaking, 
is distress and terror and sorrow and tribulation for the 


128 Here Stand I! 

church takes on an entirely different aspect. Here God is 
beginning a good work in us; and under his hand terror 
turns to joy and lamentation to gratitude. 

It is as true of God’s people today as it was of the children of 
Israel that “the more they afflicted them, the more they 
multiplied and grew.” And so we learn a new way of 
thinking which turns to God. “ I thank thee that thou dost 
humble me and help me. For when thou dost humble me 
thou makest me great.” 

And so we will let our eyes be opened to see God’s marvel¬ 
ous work, which leads us into the depths in order that we 
may be glad of his help, which sets us in the midst of sor¬ 
row in order that we may learn to thank him for the fellow¬ 
ship in the gospel. The beginning of that work is already 
here. Will it go farther? Will it be crowned by fulfillment? 
We do not know; but we must admit that there is room for 
doubt. 

Could this new birth in Christ possibly be brought about 
in our church and in our congregations if it should please 
God suddenly to remove the oppression which is weighing 
upon us ? I know that this question weighs heavily on many 
a man who joyfully and gratefully consents to travel the 
road along which we are now being led. If the oppression 
were removed, would not the congregations which have as¬ 
sembled and joined together as the “ Confessional Church ” 
be again scattered to the four winds, would not the old misery 
of loneliness and indifference begin anew? 

Or, on the other hand, what will happen if the oppression 
becomes stronger, if we are asked to suffer and endure in 
earnest, as has already come to pass here and there ? Will 
our strength be great enough to enable us to remain loyal ? 


Fellowship in the Gospel 129 

Assuredly, dear friends, it will then be made manifest what 
were only our own desires and actions and what is God’s 
work. For our desires and actions will sooner or later reach 
their limits and collapse; but God’s work will go on. 

God does not stop at half measures and his loyalty does not 
let us fall before we have reached the goal. We must, like 
Paul, be confident that he will complete his work, provided 
his work has begun in us. If only the beginning is right, if 
only we base our adherence to him not on our own good will 
but on his loyalty, if only we do not trust to our own strength 
but let ourselves be stayed and upheld by his grace! 

Paul bases his confidence in the congregation at Philippi 
on the fact that they are all partakers of grace with him. 
That means, however, that their fellowship in the gospel 
really comes from the gospel, and that their brotherly love 
springs from grace, from the forgiving love of God in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and not from other motives or thoughts. 

It is certainly natural and explicable that in the reality of 
our Christian life both as individuals and as a congregation 
there should still be many foreign undercurrents; that sub¬ 
sidiary motives and side issues should creep in; that ques¬ 
tions of human relationships and friendships, of the recogni¬ 
tion and recompense of our services, should take up our 
attention, perhaps without our being conscious of them, per¬ 
haps without our suspecting their existence. But these influ¬ 
ences suddenly come to light if we feel that we are not ade¬ 
quately esteemed, not fully recognized. God’s grace does 
not suddenly create perfectly selfless men and women, it 
does not take away secret selfishness all at once. But it does 
possess and it does impart to us the power to keep from falter¬ 
ing in our fight against hidden self-love, and in the struggle 


130 Here Stand I! 

this power makes true love grow strong to recognize more 
and more clearly where its path and its duty lie. It makes us 
draw more deeply and abundantly upon the forgiving and 
sustaining love of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may live 
by that love and in that love. 

It is really not enough for us to accept the gospel message of 
grace once . The message is given us so that our love may be 
enriched by it in knowledge and experience, and so that it 
may bear the fruit which the Lord Jesus Christ creates in us, 
that we may honor our God. 

Thus to the great gratitude for what we have already been 
given in the fellowship of the gospel is added the confident 
request for what we still lack, that we may continue to grow 
and abide in this fellowship until the Lord Jesus Christ him¬ 
self comes and puts an end to the struggle. 

Then the seemingly great decisions for which we are now 
so anxiously waiting will shrink to their true proportions, 
though they may have been called decisions of life or death, 
freedom or slavery, peace or strife; and the seemingly small 
decisions amid which we find ourselves today and every day 
will, though at the moment they mean only obedience or 
self-will, growth or stagnation, be seen as the truly great and 
truly decisive things they are; for here it is the most important 
matter of all that is at stake — the question of heaven or hell. 

And so, even in these days of uncertainty and care and 
anxiety, and particularly while we are bowed down by the 
burden of these times, we shall keep our eyes open to the one 
and only thing that is needful — and that is that God’s work 
may continue in us and that we may abide and grow in the 
fellowship of the gospel. amen. 


MARTHA AND MARY 

( Septuagesima ) 

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and 
a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his 
word. 

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, 
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her 
therefore that she help me. 

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and 
troubled about many things: 

But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall 
not be taken away from her. — Lu\e 10:38-42 

❖ 

It is quite possible, dear brethren, that the two sisters with 
whom this gospel lesson deals were of entirely different na¬ 
tures. For generations we have been accustomed to represent 
Martha as the typical shrewish, duty-ridden woman, and 
Mary, on the other hand, as tender-hearted and meditative; 
and art has contributed its share toward impressing this pic¬ 
ture indelibly on our minds. We speak carelessly of a “ Mar¬ 
tha nature ” and a “ Mary nature ” as of established and 
immutable dispositions. 

Granted that it is natural to put such a construction on this 
little story, granted that in this way the different conduct of 
the two women is easily explained, this is nevertheless an in- 

13 1 


132 Here Stand I! 

terpretation which prevents us from reaching a proper and 
clearly defined attitude with regard to the real question 
which comes up here. Is Jesus here commending Mary’s 
way of acting as opposed to Martha’s; is Mary’s type of piety, 
which takes and welcomes what it receives, of more value in 
his sight than that of Martha, which gives and acts; is the 
one essentially nearer and dearer to him than the other? 
But in any case we must not be sorry for ourselves, for in¬ 
stance, because our disposition happens to make us active, 
busy and efficient like Martha, and in the same way we must 
not consider ourselves fortunate if we are receptive and medi¬ 
tative like Mary. For each temperament has its blessings 
and each its dangers. 

Not only did Jesus caution Martha with regard to her pre¬ 
occupation with her duties; he pointed with equal earnest¬ 
ness to the results of shirking one’s duties: “ Everyone that 
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be 
likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the 
sand.” And Jesus not only praised Mary for listening quietly 
to his words; he as emphatically lauded active obedience: “ If 
ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” 

We are thus forbidden to make this story a reason for set¬ 
ting the “ Mary nature ” above the “ Martha nature,” for set¬ 
ting contemplative Christianity above active Christianity, as 
though Jesus had here expressed himself in favor of the one 
and against the other. There is no hint of that at all; and this 
solution will not fit. Rather do we read in the Gospel of St. 
John — and also in the Gospel of St. Luke — that “ Jesus 
loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” 

The difference in his attitude toward the two sisters is not 


Martha and Mary 133 

one of degree of sympathy, just as the difference in their atti¬ 
tude toward him is not one of more and less affection and 
love for him. For this reason probably it is also emphasized 
— in order to avoid possible misunderstanding — that it was 
Martha who received him into her house, and that she then 
set to work as a housewife, certainly not churlishly and ill- 
temperedly, but with the happy zeal of love, to serve the dear 
guest, while her sister Mary, certainly not because of laziness 
and indolence but because of an inner urge, listened to the 
teaching of the Master — which does not mean, by the bye, 
that Mary was the only listener and that Jesus was here hold¬ 
ing a special, personal, heart-searching conversation with her. 
Had that been the case Martha would scarcely have dared to 
interfere. 

We must rather think of the situation as something like 
this: The poor overworked housewife cannot alone do the 
work for Jesus and his companions, and the only helper she 
has, her sister, leaves her in the lurch to listen to what Jesus 
is saying. We can understand the ill humor in Martha’s 
words, and the moral right is undoubtedly on her side. 

Now if Jesus’ answer meant that Martha must not let her 
harassing household duties crowd out the quiet hours of 
meditation and reflection, well and good. But surely if he 
meant that, he recognized her claim to Mary’s help. The 
quickest way to restore the disturbed equilibrium between 
labor and rest, between giving and receiving, would have 
been for both sisters to observe the sensible rule, “ There is a 
time for all things.” Then they would have shared the serv¬ 
ing and the listening and both would have had justice. 

But Jesus is obviously not concerned with such justice 


134 Here Stand I! 

either. It really does not matter to him, and his words about 
“ the one thing that is needful ” remain an unsolved riddle 
to us as long as we seek to understand them from the point 
of view of our own judgments and wishes and demands. 

When Jesus speaks of this one thing he does not mean 
anything which lies in our nature, in our mind or in our 
conduct; he does not mean anything which we could of our¬ 
selves strive after and seek and find if only we were given a 
hint as to how to proceed. This one thing is to be found only 
in him. Nay, more; we can say that he himself is this one 
thing, because he is the one person who is needful to us. 

The fact that it is Jesus and not any other pious and wise 
man who goes into the house of Martha and Mary, the fact 
that he speaks and teaches in their home and that the two 
women have to deal with him — the one by looking after 
his comfort and the other by listening to his words — un¬ 
locks the door to the proper understanding of the story and 
makes it impossible for us to deduce any general rules of 
life or conduct from it. Here stands the one person in 
whom is to be found the one thing needful, the one person 
in whom, without our agency, are effectively revealed those 
things of which it is written: “ What eye hath not seen nor 
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 

Because it is God who is here acting in the one person our 
work must cease in his presence; because it is God who here 
speaks to us in the one person our voices must here be silent. 
For what God says and does to us in this Jesus can, if it pass 
us by, be replaced by nothing that we think or do, by no pious 
zeal and by no pious service. It is the “ one thing which is 
needful ”; and where we are permitted to come into contact 


Martha and Mary 135 

with that one person we must obey the command: “ Put off 
thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou stand- 
est is holy ground.” — And so Martha is warned: “ Thou art 
careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is 
needful.” What may in other circumstances be quite justi¬ 
fied here becomes a hindrance and a danger; for he who 
speaks thus is “ come not to be served, but to serve.” And 
because Mary accepted this service she received the testi¬ 
mony, “ She hath chosen that good part,” and the promise, 
“ It will not be taken away from her.” 

Thus this incident becomes an allegory, one not meant to 
present Mary’s quiet listening as being better than Martha’s 
resdess activity, but to make plain to all who hear it — not 
only to Martha but also to Mary, who in all likelihood was 
amazed at Jesus’ words—that in this Jesus there is some¬ 
thing which most assuredly decides our fate. In him is to be 
found the one thing needful in our relation to God, and in 
his presence we cannot and must not do anything different 
from what Mary did, perhaps unconsciously. We must lis¬ 
ten and pay heed without argument. 

For what is to be found in Christ is grace — that is, a work 
of God to which we can add nothing — and as Christ’s mes¬ 
sage this work of God creates faith and brings the sinner to 
peace with the gracious God. Thus Paul writes to the Ro¬ 
mans, “Faith cometh by hearing” — or, as Luther trans¬ 
lates, “ by preaching.” 

And so the story of Martha and Mary leads us to the funda¬ 
mental belief of the Reformation, and we can express Jesus’ 
words, “one thing is needful,” in Luther’s interpretation: 
“ No man becomes a Christian through the doing of works, 
but through listening to the word of God.” To hold fast to 


136 Here Stand 1! 

that perception and to pay heed to it means choosing the 
good part which “ will not be taken away.” 

And now, dear brethren, we may also ask what special 
message this story can and must have for us today. 

We are not saying too much, I am convinced, when we 
claim that the Lord Jesus Christ has again returned to our 
midst. He is somehow nearer to our nation than he has been 
for some years, and people are speaking of him and lighting 
for him with a passion which we had scarcely thought possi¬ 
ble. A sure sign that he is here. 

And now come the “cares of Martha.” We should like 
him really to come into his own. We wish all who love him 
to help in preparing a friendly and worthy reception for 
him. The work is increasing, it is becoming too heavy for us 
in face of the difficulties which arise. “ Cares of Martha ” 
about school and church, “cares of Martha” about child 
education and the guidance of youth, “ cares of Martha ” 
about the educated classes and about the “ masses.” What 
shall we in the Confessional Church do that our nation 
may be saved for the Lord Jesus Christ and led back to the 
Christian faith? Can this result be achieved by a united 
church, by bishops and synods, or by discussions with the 
German Christians, with Dinter and Rosenberg? Who 
would wish, who would dare to blame us for being “ careful 
and troubled about many things ”! 

But “ one thing is needful.” And without this one thing 
we are pouring water into a bottomless cask; without this 
one thing we are building a tower without a foundation. 
We are a confessional church only if we listen and pay heed 
to the fact that the eternal God has made himself known 
to us in the one person, Jesus Christ; that this one thing 


Martha and Mary 


137 

obliges us again and again to let ourselves be gripped and up¬ 
held by this message; and that all that we are ready to do 
in his service can be carried out only through this one mes¬ 
sage. “ It is better to neglect anything rather than the Word, 
and nothing is more worth cultivating than the Word.” 
This one thing is needful! amen. 


JUDGE ME, O GOD! 

(Judica: Passion Sunday) 

Grace be unto you and peace from Gojl our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: Oh deliver 
me from the deceitful and unjust man. 

For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? Why go I 
mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 

Oh send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto 
thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. 

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon 
the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God. 

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? 
hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, 
and my God. — Ps. 43 

❖ 

From time immemorial, dear brethren, this psalm has been 
associated with this second Sunday before the Passion, which 
bears its name: “Judica — judge me, O God, and plead my 
cause! ” It is a prayer for justice addressed to him who is the 
judge of all justice and injustice, a prayer by one whose rights 
have been withheld and to whom wrong has been done. 

And it must be confessed that it is easy to connect this wail¬ 
ing cry of one forlorn with the suffering of the Lord, who in 
his suffering and death endured every injustice, and who in 
his last abandonment cried aloud, “ My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me ? ” 

It is an affliction, a deep and unconquerable affliction, when 
justice is destroyed, when injustice gains the victory and God 

138 


Judge Me, O God! 139 

is silent. And when we have the same experience as the 
psalmist, the plaintive “ Why ? Why dost thou cast me off ? 
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the en¬ 
emy ? ” — imperceptibly becomes an accusation, and then this 
why? begins to weigh so heavily upon us that our faith, our 
trust in God, threatens to give way under it — and quite 
often does give way under it. For how are we to believe in 
God, how can we fear, love and trust God above all things, 
if in the world iniquity triumphs and the will of God’s 
enemies proves itself the stronger ? 

Dear friends, this affliction was also part of Christ’s suffer¬ 
ings, and now it is part of the sufferings of those who follow 
in his steps. 

Today all the bells of the German Protestant churches 
are silent, and in every divine service a prayer of intercession 
is being said for the five Protestant pastors from Hesse and 
Saxony who have been taken away from their congregations 
and put into the concentration camp in spite of the remon¬ 
strances made by the interim church management to the 
authorities. And so the only course left open to us is to act 
according to the words, “ Whether one member suffer, all 
the members suffer with it,” and we turn, seeking justice and 
help, to the supreme and highest court. “ Judge me, O God, 
and plead my cause against an unholy nation.” 

But alas! that appeal does not remove the affliction. The 
question why continues to torment and oppress us and un¬ 
dermine our faith. 

I am thinking of a dear young colleague in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Frankfurt who was arrested almost three weeks ago. 
His mother is lying in the hospital fighting for life after a 
dangerous operation for cancer; his old father had a severe 


140 Here Stand I! 

paralytic stroke when he heard the news. And what is the 
cause for the arrest ? The mere fact that the pastor, in op¬ 
position to the order of the unlawful bishop, an order con¬ 
trary to the creed of the church, refused to leave his congre¬ 
gation and his congregation refused to leave him. 

Injustice carries the day and is victorious. Why ? Where 
is the justice of God? Where is the faith, in those whom 
this injustice affects, in us who look on, the faith which fears 
and loves and trusts God above all things? 

Once you might have dismissed the young pastor’s arrest 
by calling it an isolated incident. In similar fashion you 
might have dismissed other examples of injustice which 
suddenly enter the field of vision of the whole congregation. 
But today why is among us all. And whether voiced or 
unuttered, we all know it and all feel the distress which 
gave it birth. We read one passage in Isaiah: “ The righteous 
perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.” And the singer 
Asaph declares in the seventy-third Psalm: “I was envious 
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” 

Dear brethren, it is so very easy to grow bitter when our 
why remains unanswered by God and to seek solace else¬ 
where. Yes, there is among us much bitterness and self- 
defense which grasps at the sole human expedient left when 
our endurance is exhausted: cold and indifferent contempt. 

It is bad when things come to that pass, for that is death. 
It is doubly bad when the freezing hand of this death is laid 
on the place from which living streams of faith and love 
should flow, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the 
real, the great temptation of this moment, when violence 
and injustice — falsely practiced in the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ — have destroyed the outer structure of the 


Judge Me, O God! 141 

Protestant church, is that the congregation, powerless as it 
is to resist, may fall into bitterness and silent hatred, and 
thus let in death. 

A warning signpost must be set up here: we dare not follow 
this road; we dare not persist in asking “ Why? ” and keep 
on obstinately demanding the rights which have been taken 
from us. If we do so, we shall suddenly find that we are 
measuring God’s thoughts by our thoughts and making our 
faith depend upon God’s doing what we wish. When that 
happens it is all over with our faith, for faith exists only 
where we leave the guidance to God and put ourselves in 
his hands so that we may do what he wishes. 

That is why the psalmist tears himself free from the doubt¬ 
ing, tempting question; that is why his prayer for justice 
changes to a petition for guidance for his faith: “ Send out 
thy light and thy truth: let them lead me! ” For our sal¬ 
vation does not depend upon whether we have been given 
our rights nor upon the doing of our will; but it is lost and 
forfeit if the injustice which weighs upon us gains the upper 
hand and determines our thoughts and actions. 

God’s guidance! That is what we need if the tribulation 
through which we must pass is to become not the temptation 
which will work our ruin, but the trial which will prove that 
we are right. And if we therefore make this prayer our 
own, “ Oh send forth thy light and thy truth; let them lead 
me ” — then, in addition to the unknown supplicator of the 
Old Testament, there intercedes for us that familiar figure 
from the garden of Gethsemane, who prayed until he could 
put aside the thought of injustice and accept the will of his 
Father: “ O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from 
me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” There is the guid- 


Here Stand I! 


142 

ance which we need; there the question why? has been 
overcome; there we find no bitterness toward and no con¬ 
tempt of the ungodly nation, the “ deceitful and unjust men ” 
who cause the injustice. In Christ’s case injustice rises to its 
supreme satanic proportions; but its power is broken, it is 
set aside, for, in the words of the apostle Peter, “he com¬ 
mitted himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” 

And even the evildoers are encompassed by a forgiving 
love which beareth all things and endureth all things and 
which therefore hopeth all things and attaineth all things. 
“ Father, forgive them! ” 

To be sure, we may say and possibly we are forced to say 
that the road which is here shown us is too steep for us to 
follow, and that this light is too bright and this truth too 
great for us to be able to grasp. We cannot possibly cope 
with the injustice which is being done us in such a way that 
no bitterness remains; we are simply not capable of being 
so forgiving that we can return genuine love for enmity. 
No effort, however strenuous, and no practice, however con¬ 
stant, can really make us do so or teach us to do so. 

But the other thing is possible for us, and that is that we 
trust ourselves to the leadership of him who is the light of 
the world and the truth of God. We can let him set us be¬ 
fore the holy God in such a way that in his presence our in¬ 
iquity is revealed and our accusing why? is silenced; in such 
a way that we recognize we have no right to ask for any¬ 
thing, but that we are ourselves dependent upon grace and 
forgiveness. Then the roots of the bitterness which seeks to 
poison us are cut off so that it must wither and die; then 
there is room for the glad tidings of the forgiving love of the 
Lord Jesus Christ which seeks me and is meant for me and 


Judge Me, O God! 143 

bestows upon me the courage of faith, so that I dare hold 
fast to God, so that I may go “ to the altar of God, unto God 
my exceeding joy.” 

Where faith wakens and comes to life the injustice which 
is done us loses its power to tempt us and cannot have do¬ 
minion over us. Nubiculum est, transibit; it is but a little 
cloud and will soon pass. But the sun remains. The light 
and the truth of God, which are present in Jesus Christ, have 
a compelling force. We trust in them and, as a church of 
the gospel, we will testify to them in spite of distress and 
persecution, aye, in the midst of distress and persecution. 

Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? 
and why art thou disquieted within me ? 

Hope in God; 
for I shall yet praise him, 
who is the health of my countenance, 
and my God. 


AMEN. 


THE BURIAL 


( Good Friday Evening ) 

Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who gave himself for our sins! Amen. 

❖ 

And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from 
Galilee, ministering unto him: 

Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and 
Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children. 

When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, 
who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: 

He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded 
the body to be delivered. 

And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 

And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he 
rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed. 

And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the 
sepulcher. 

Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests 
and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that de¬ 
ceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 

Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest 
his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is 
risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. 

Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. 

So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a 
watch. — Matt. 27:55-66 

❖ 

“Sealing the stone.” . . . Crucified, dead and buried! 
The destiny of Jesus of Nazareth has been fulfilled, and 
everything has happened as it had to happen. For no na¬ 
tion will allow its religion, its own peculiar piety, its chosen 
faith to be destroyed. And the threat of destruction to all 

144 


The Burial 


M5 

these things was, of course, the trouble on that Good Friday 
— if we look at the human motives. Here we see a people 
proud of its history and of its blood — “ We have Abraham 
to our father! ” — a nation proud of its piety and of its tem¬ 
ple — “ What buildings are here! ” This people has carried 
out reprisals and vengeance on the man who set his face 
against its pride, proclaiming the approaching sovereignty 
of God which orders all human arrogance to repent but does 
not offer any real or tangible substitute. “ Believe in the 
gospel! ” 

What does the gospel or “ good news ” really mean on the 
lips of him who takes away from us all wherein we find 
pleasure and destroys all whereon we pride ourselves P Abra¬ 
ham’s children? — “I say unto you that God is able of these 
stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” An everlasting 
Jerusalem ? — “ There shall not be left here one stone upon 
another.” 

And so everything really had to happen as it happened: 
Christ was crucified, died and was buried — and they sealed 
the stone! 

On the evening of Good Friday the high priests and the 
Pharisees heave a sigh of relief. Public peace and safety have 
been restored; the unity of the church and of the religion of 
the Jewish nation has been preserved; the national faith has 
gained a complete victory. The old hope may now awake 
to new life; the nation may again proclaim and believe: 
“We are Abraham’s seed; we are the heirs according to the 
promise; ours is the everlasting kingdom.” 

The people has spoken, and its words have condemned 
the teacher of Nazareth to eternal silence. Is not the voice 
of the people the voice of God ? 


146 Here Stand I! 

But how comes it that this Jesus does not remain silent? 
How comes it that he — who has just been laid in the tomb 
— again begins to speak? “After three days I will rise 
again! ” Whence comes the terror which drives the victors 
back to Pilate, when they have scarcely won the victory, to 
beg him for protection against the dead man ? 

Dear friends, it is a futile undertaking for a man, indeed 
for a whole nation, to try to get rid of the living God. It 
is of no use whatever to brand the Lord Jesus Christ as an 
enemy of the people and put him to death and lay him in 
the tomb among the dead. Anyone who has once met him, 
anyone who has listened to his word and seen his work, 
anyone who has felt his omnipotence, has heard God pass 
sentence upon himself, and that sentence remains in force. 

It was a delusion on the part of Jesus’ enemies to think that 
they could escape the sentence which he had passed upon 
them by the sentence which they passed on him. On the 
contrary, God’s judgment begins in the terror with which 
the dead Christ inspires his enemies; that is the judgment 
of the living God on all efforts made by man to regain his 
peace of mind. 

In ordinary circumstances people are not afraid of a dead 
man. People do not as a rule seek police protection against 
someone who has been buried. Here it is otherwise. This 
Jesus of Nazareth is given up to universal contempt. He is 
condemned and executed, he is buried — and yet we are not 
done with him. 

Conscience knows well that he has spoken the truth. 
And more than that, conscience knows that it was God who 
spoke to him. And whether we bow to his judgment now 
and believe in him, or whether we resist his judgment and 


The Burial 147 

refuse to accept him, our self-assurance is at an end; the Jesus 
who has been put to death proves to be just as dangerous as 
was the living Jesus. But that is an uncanny situation; and 
that is why the attempt to get rid of him, to silence him 
by every method within human power, continues to meet 
with no success. He has been put to death, yet the terror 
remains; his followers have been persecuted up till the pres¬ 
ent day, but the unrest has not abated. 

The fact is that it is useless for us to fight against God. 
Our resistance serves only to show forth his might and his 
truth. 

How does it happen that today on Good Friday the 
churches seem too small to accommodate those who are 
flocking into them ? This coming together is certainly not 
only the survival of old custom — that has long ago fallen 
into decay; it is not only human sympathy with a tragic 
destiny — there are plenty of other opportunities to exercise 
such sympathy; it is not only Christian faith wishing to draw 
new energy from the message of the cross — else the churches 
would not be empty again at Easter. 

No, the reason is that the crucified, dead and buried 
Christ gives us no peace, that the execution of Jesus was a 
vain effort on the part of men, and that we ourselves must 
either fight against the dead Christ or bow down to him, be¬ 
cause humanity has achieved only one result with Golgotha: 
its resistance has brought it up against God himself and it 
is now forced to see that its work was altogether in vain. 

And even if men have refused to see and still call him a 
deceiver in spite of the voice of their conscience, even if 
they succeed in again getting the state to intervene—we 
see in their attitude the unwilling confession of the van- 


Here Stand I 


148 

quished victors: “We are at the end of our resources and can 
do no more; thou hast conquered, O Galilean! ” 

We men tried to sit in judgment upon God, and now we 
discover that he has sat in judgment upon us, and all that is 
left for us to decide is whether we will bow to God’s judg¬ 
ment or resist it, whether we will acknowledge God’s au¬ 
thority or persist in our iniquity. 

The death of Jesus on the cross brings us yet another mes¬ 
sage. It not only tells that all human pride, all human as¬ 
surance, all human power here collapse under God’s judg¬ 
ment and are reduced to nought; it also speaks of how God 
gives grace to the humble, how he comforts the despondent 
heart and strengthens those who are weak and helpless. 

To be sure, the cross is the work of human hands, and as 
such it is an attempted rebellion against God which was 
bound to fail in the past and which is bound to fail 
on any future occasion. But this same cross is also the 
free act of obedience of him who prayed in Gethsemane, 
“ Not my will, but thine, be done! ” It is the free act 
of love of him who says to us, “ I am the good shepherd; 
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” 

And if we hear this message of the cross, if we look upon 
the death of Jesus as the act of obedience and love, we will 
no longer say, “ It all happened as it had to happen.” Then 
the words “ crucified, dead and buried ” will hold a miracle 
which will not let us go, yea, the miracle of all miracles, of 
which the poet sings: “ Oh miracle without measure! Be¬ 
hold, the master has let himself be slain for his servant! ” 
There are a few to whom a premonition of this miracle 
comes while they stand at the foot of Jesus’ cross. I do not 
mean Christ’s arrogant enemies, who are making a final 


The Burial 


149 

attempt to maintain their authority. Nor do I mean the 
eleven disciples who had meant to be so valiant in their 
allegiance. I refer to a man “who was also a disciple of 
Jesus ” but only “ secretly,” as John reports, “ for fear of the 
Jews.” He is gripped by this miracle of obedience and love; 
he dares to risk his life in order to procure an honorable 
burial for the crucified Christ. And, according to the Gospel 
of St. John, there is with him another man who had until 
then been likewise a secret disciple of Jesus — Nicodemus, 
who had once come to Jesus by night — “for fear of the 
Jews”; and a few women are also present, among them 
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. 

Merely a few frightened and despondent souls in whom 
the divine power of this death is making itself felt, a few 
souls who, vanquished by the love that had made Christ 
give up his life for man, of their own free will profess their 
faith in him as he hangs dying upon the cross and so be¬ 
come heralds of his resurrection after the crucifixion is over. 

But what meaning has this story for us on Good Friday, 
1935? We will let Luther speak to us: “ Such an incident 
stands out as an example to us all, so that we may imitate 
this Joseph and Nicodemus, and when Christ hangs upon 
the cross, that is, when the gospel is being persecuted and 
the poor Christians martyred for its sake, we may step forth 
and, regardless of the wrath of the tyrants, praise the Son of 
God and his word, and honor it by publicly professing our 
faith in it; until in his glorious resurrection the dead Christ 
shall appear, and then the fainthearted, timid, frightened 
Christians will also be comforted and will again be ready to 
profess their faith in him! ” amen. 


BUT GOD! 


(Second day of Easter ) 

Grace be unto you and peace from Him who is and was and is to be, 
the living God! Amen. 

❖ 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by 
grace ye are saved); 

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places 
in Christ Jesus. — Eph. 2:4-6 

❖ 

What do we mean by Easter? 

It can scarcely be put into words, dear friends; for when 
we try to describe it we succeed only in giving a faltering 
account of an inexpressible, soul-shattering abundance. For 
who will say what life is ? Our heart has some slight idea 
of its meaning, and out-of-doors we catch a glimpse of it in 
nature. But it is like the sea, without beginning or end. 
We look over it, but we cannot see the other side; we cannot 
grasp it, but it takes hold of us and carries us along with it, 
we know not how. It is made up of the rhythm of pleasure 
and pain, of love and sorrow, of doubt and hope. A song 
rings out and when it dies away a new one has already be¬ 
gun; a wave rises, and when it falls back the next is already 
rolling in. 

No, it is hopeless to try to express this immeasurable and 
confusing abundance, this beneficent and yet oppressive 
force in whose power we are, in thoughts and words, as 
though we could encompass it. 

150 


But God! 151 

Life is greater than we are; and Easter brings us news of 
this ungovernable life which laughs at death and which can 
be checked by no grave. Easter brings us news of life eter¬ 
nal, and in our poor little human hearts the echo of yearn¬ 
ing awakes. “ Spring plays upon the earth; let it be spring¬ 
time in our hearts; let light eternal reign! ” 

Is that our Easter ? Then let us be careful lest these poor 
little human hearts learn something that will change all their 
bright hopes of spring, all their tender longings for life, 
into utter darkness and terror. 

The fact that all our way lies over graves is an old story 
to us; we have long accepted and grown accustomed to the 
idea that things are so and not otherwise. We plant flowers 
on every grave and in so doing think our own thoughts on 
how life must spring again even from death. And though 
we may feel a stab of pain at this or that grave and wonder: 
“ Why so soon ? Why so suddenly ? Why so cruelly ? ” — 
we get over that, if only we take a tight hold on our heart 
and forbid it to keep on asking that obstinate “ Why ? ” In 
the end we even become reconciled to the thought that in 
our own short life the spring dies away, summer, autumn 
and winter come and go, and in the end only a grave re¬ 
mains. 

If only this one short life granted to us is worth while, 
if only it achieves and creates something that will remain 
and live on, then the flowers will bloom on our grave too; 
then the sun of life will continue to shine over our death. 
Man must die, his individual life is of no great importance. 
But Life remains and its transfiguring light streams out even 
beyond our grave and announces its victory over death. 

The light is dimmed; the yearning has died away; the joy 


152 Here Stand I! 

has ceased. Yet why grow bitter ? As though every harvest 
did not turn to seed again, as though fulfillment had not its 
rights as well as yearning. Why not let our heart say with 
the poet, when the road is nearing its end, “ Come what 
may, ye happy eyes, all ye have seen was so fair! ” 

Yes, how comes it that the Easter message of the omnipo¬ 
tence of life in the end leaves us utterly empty so that we 
rebel against it in our innermost hearts ? Is it only because 
it does not satisfy our claims that we want more than a uni¬ 
versal message of life, that we long for personal survival be¬ 
yond death and the grave, for a new life free from the shackles 
of human and earthly imperfections? As the poet makes 
Zarathustra say with striking truth: “ Pain says: pass away! 
— but pleasure always wants to last forever, wants to last for¬ 
ever and ever! ” 

What prevents us, then, from turning to this hope ? What 
prevents us from believing in a personal eternal life, an im¬ 
mortality of the soul ? For the longing for immortality is an 
instinct that runs through all nations and all times like a last 
faint hope. And now to crown all comes Easter, the resurrec¬ 
tion of Jesus from the tomb; and we hear that henceforth he 
will not die and that death can nevermore wield power over 
him. 

Even though that inmost core of our being — that secret 
corner where in our forefathers dwelt the instinct of im¬ 
mortality— has been covered up, surely it must now reveal 
itself again. For shall we not now joyfully proclaim, “ We 
bid you hope ” ? 

Death is not the last word even with regard to the indi¬ 
vidual human life. There is a personal, eternal life of perfec¬ 
tion, free from all earthly toil and travail, a life of which the 
Bible tells us: “ There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, 


But God! 


153 

nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the for¬ 
mer things have passed away.” 

I am sure we have often heard these tidings in this or in 
similar form, and when all is said and done this is probably 
the truly happy message for which our heart is silently yearn¬ 
ing and waiting: “ The power of death is destroyed and we 
are restored to life.” 

Which of us, dear friends, would not have liked to give 
this belief a trial — and which of us would not have come to 
grief with it, too, when things became serious and went hard 
with us! For there is a “ but ” — a great “ but ” — connected 
with it; and at the decisive moment this “but” comes be¬ 
tween us and our hope: But — God! 

If God is the supreme and decisive reality behind all life 
and death, what then? Then, to be sure, it suddenly be¬ 
comes extremely unimportant whether we sing hymns to 
the miracle of life, or deck our graves with flowers, or believe 
in immortality for the human soul. Such things are all very 
well; but what of God? If he exists what is our position ? 
Seriously, dear friends, we speak of God as though we knew 
him; we sing and pray as though we were on the best of 
terms with him; we worry about life and death as though we 
took it for granted that God agrees with our ideas. 

And in so doing we forget that when we are dealing with 
God all our talking, singing, thinking and doing become of 
questionable value, because it is God who passes judgment 
on them and not we, and because all depends on what he 
decrees with regard to our life and death. 

God! That means our life rests on a new foundation and 
our arrogance is at an end. Man wills, believes and thinks 
— but God! Everywhere and always this last “but” — 
but God! 


Here Stand I! 


154 

And we run against it and of necessity resist it; for we can¬ 
not bear that another should be lord over us. “ You will be 
as God! ” — that remains our goal even though we may not 
admit it; therein do we seek the fulfillment of our life. 
There is no getting away from the fact that we should like 
God — however Godlike we may conceive him to be — to 
do what we want. And that desire is what the Scriptures 
call “sin”; and because of this sin, because we refuse to 
recognize his authority, God places us under the dominion 
and under the law of death. 

Now we yearn for life. Now we dream of life. Now we 
may even hope for immortality. Yet death stands in our 
way and sin hangs between us and this immortality: but — 
God! 

How much of Easter have we left, if it is true that “ the 
wages of sin is death,” if we must see ourselves as those who 
are “ dead in their sins ” ? This one thing remains — no, 
this one thing is gained: now we know at last that what 
troubles us is not a flaw in the beauty of life, but a deep and 
yawning chasm that runs through the whole of life. 

Our desire is not for a life which endures longer than 
death; we yearn for the life which vanquishes death, which 
knows not sin, behind which there can be seen no menacing 
“ but — God.” 

Dear brethren, it is the old question which crops up again 
and again, although it is said on every hand to be obsolete: 
“ How can we find a gracious God; how can we make our 
peace with God; where shall we find forgiveness of sin ? ” 
For where there is forgiveness of sin there life and happiness 
are also to be found, and there alone the agonizing “ but — 
God ” is at last silenced. 


But God! 155 

Thus over all our Easter joy lies the shadow of Good 
Friday. For there, in the crucifixion of Jesus, sin is revealed 
as a conscious and intentional rebellion against God. And 
so Jesus has to die because the sovereignty of God is revealed 
in him; so Jesus has to die because we do not want the 
sovereignty of God. And then we can go no further; we 
do not want God and yet we cannot live without him! 

What else does the cross mean but that we pronounce our 
own death sentence! It must necessarily be so, in order that 
we may hear the real, true message of Easter, which brings us 
news of an act of God that takes place when we are abso¬ 
lutely at the end of our resources, when nothing is left but 
damnation or grace. 

And this message also begins with a “but — God”; yet 
this “ but ” is greater than our heart: “ But God, who is rich 
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us.” 

When we hear these words, then even in the midst of our 
death, in the midst of our resistance we feel that there is a 
possibility, a divine possibility, that grace may have the last 
word and that it may break down our resistance and over¬ 
come our death. Then it no longer sounds incredible to us 
when Paul declares his belief that “ God hath quickened us to¬ 
gether with Christ — and hath raised us up together, and 
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” 

This message tells of death that has been vanquished, of a 
new life and an eternal perfection — but of course, “ together 
with Christ.” And so we must dare to believe that he who 
was crucified on Good Friday, he who rose again after three 
days, is, both now and forevermore, our living Lord. 


AMEN. 


THOMAS 


(; Quasimodo) 

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when 
Jesus came. 

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. 

But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, 
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, 
I will not believe. 

And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: 
then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace 
be unto you. 

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but be¬ 
lieving. 

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; 
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. — John 20:24-29 

❖ 

This Thomas, with his honest and outspoken doubt, as we 
see him in today’s gospel lesson, is somehow or other par¬ 
ticularly congenial and mentally akin to us German men 
and women who believe in Christ. The way in which he 
goes off alone with his trouble and tries to fight it out by 
himself; his refusal to let himself be influenced in his opin¬ 
ions by what other people say because he prefers to be free 
to make up his mind for himself; his manner of standing up, 
with a certain obstinate defiance, for his own principles and 

156 


Thomas 157 

conditions — all these things, as well as other less prominent 
traits in his character, appeal to us because they are so classi¬ 
cally German and almost persuade us that this Gospel has 
some special message for us. 

And there is something else that points in the same direc¬ 
tion: we imagine that we see the reasons behind Thomas’ 
doubt more clearly today than we did a few years ago. There 
is a certain similarity between the position of the band of 
disciples in the period following Easter and our position as 
a Christian community. 

It was very easy for us to sing the hymn “ Christ is risen ” 
as long as everyone was really convinced that the Christian 
faith was preferable to any other and that it would in the 
long run conquer the whole world. We know, indeed, how 
even such an independent and outstanding spirit as Goethe 
was deeply imbued with the feeling that humanity would 
never outgrow the moral sublimity of the message of Christ. 
Thus our fathers and we ourselves have believed that it was 
permissible to infer the truth of the Bible message from the 
progressive victory of Christianity in the world, and thus 
be enabled, by means of our practical experience, to find 
and grasp and, to a certain extent, “ see ” the risen, living 
Christ. 

But now this finding of Christ is shown to be but an illu¬ 
sion, for where is this victory in a day when the enemies of 
the cross are proclaiming to all the world that Jesus of Naza¬ 
reth is really dead and that they will take care that he does 
not rise again from the dead ? 

You see, they have — as they had then — every power at 
their disposal. They enjoy full freedom to make speeches 
and hold meetings and are at liberty to call tens of thousands 


158 Here Stand I! 

together in the sports palace; and their purpose is to teach 
our nation, too, to join in the shout: “Away with this Jesus; 
we do not want him to reign over us! His blood be upon 
us and on our children! ” 

Meanwhile Christ’s message is not allowed to be heard 
in public. It is banished behind the doors of the church, 
and in many cases it has even been driven from the church 
and confined to small groups of believers who gather behind 
locked doors without a shepherd or a teacher. 

How long will this go on ? Already in several congrega¬ 
tions in Rhine-Hesse all meetings, including even Bible les¬ 
sons and celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, have been for¬ 
bidden. 

And so we get a quite new and direct insight into the 
mentality of the little band of disciples who met secretly be¬ 
hind locked doors “for fear of the Jews”; and Thomas’ 
doubt assumes an entirely different aspect and importance 
in our eyes. 

We are told that “ Jesus lives; Jesus is victor.” Yes, but can 
we seriously believe it ? Does he really live ? Does he, who 
vanquished death, leave his followers in terror and continue 
to give his enemies a free hand even now ? 

Anyone who is not familiar with this doubt and has not 
wrestled honestly with it, dear friends, should be careful 
when he speaks of his faith. Otherwise, when we are faced 
with this question—as might happen at any time now — it 
may possibly be made plain that this so-called faith is noth¬ 
ing but our own human work, a product of our reason and 
our strength, and that as a result it becomes weak and fails 
where we ourselves become weak and fail. In other words, 
we may find in the end that our faith is only a delusion which 


Thomas 


*59 

may give us a feeling of strength and security but which 
fades away like mist in the moment of disillusionment. 

Jesus has risen ? Jesus lives ? Jesus is the Lord ? 

The facts tell a different story, both to Thomas and to us: 
Jesus does not show himself; he remains hidden; he does not 
help us out of our distress. And merely because those ten 
declare, “We have seen the Lord,” we are supposed to believe 
that they have really seen him, to believe in spite of all the 
facts and against all reason. 

We cannot honestly do so, and if we did the result would 
be a very frail faith, a hesitating “ perhaps ” and very soon a 
violent, passionate “ no! ” 

Therefore we will not blame Thomas. For surely he would 
have been only too glad to be comforted — this earnest, 
thoughtful, brooding man, who at an early stage saw Jesus’ 
fatal doom approaching and said, “ Let us also go, that we 
may die with him,” and who anxiously wondered what he 
as a disciple had best do after Jesus’ death: “ Lord, we know 
not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? ” 
He needed comfort, in truth, and was well aware how greatly 
he needed it. But he also knew, and therein he remained 
incorruptibly honest, that no human word could give him 
certainty and strength, and that faith, in the sense of certainty 
and sustaining strength, never lies within human power, 
however strong our longing and however great our love may 
be. “I believe that it is not through my own reason or 
strength that I can believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come 
to him.” 

We will thank Thomas for teaching us — and we must 
learn from him — that faith must be able to say: “I am 
certain.” Otherwise it is not faith. And thus faith needs the 


160 Here Stand I! 

living Lord himself, because no other person can give us such 
certainty. 

False modesty is no help to us. Our faith does not die if 
we ask too much of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it very fre¬ 
quently languishes and degenerates because we do not dare 
to go the whole way, refusing to give in until we have been 
convinced or reconvinced. Yes, our faith dies as a result 
of our modesty, which, moreover, passes itself off as pious 
humility, as it did with King Ahaz of whom we read in 
Isaiah that he declined the offer of a sign from God with 
the pious words, “ I will not ask, neither will I tempt the 
Lord.” 

Faith dies because we say to ourselves, “ I will just leave 
everything to God; he will make everything all right.” And 
behold, we no longer need God’s word, and prayer is si¬ 
lenced, and the Lord Jesus Christ remains a stranger to us. 
We do not know whether he is dead or alive and we do 
not care either. 

But we feel that Thomas is going too far and asking too 
much and that by delivering this ultimatum and speaking in 
this brutal manner he is pronouncing his own doom. Now, 
whatever we may think about it, the Lord Jesus Christ takes 
a different attitude. He knows that with Thomas the trou¬ 
ble comes from wanting to believe and yet not being able 
to believe. He knows that here there is an unsatisfied longing 
for peace and certainty, a longing so agonizing and so deep 
that only he himself can help; and he does help. He him¬ 
self steps into the midst of his troubled and terrified disciples 
with the greeting, “ Peace be with you! ” 

Then the way is opened for Thomas to believe. He hears 
Jesus’ own word, he beholds the crucified Jesus alive again, 


Thomas 


161 


he sees the marks of the nails and puts his hand into Jesus’ 
side, and knows — knows for certain — that he can and must 
believe, for Christ himself has said to him, “ Be not faithless, 
but believing.” 

Is this a reproach, a painful reminder of one’s own inability 
to believe ? Yes, assuredly; and yet, no! It is much more than 
that. “ He has said it, and therefore my heart dares to face 
life joyously and undismayed and refuses to be afraid of 
anything.” “ My Lord and my God! ” — these words not 
only mean that Thomas has seen and known, has grasped and 
held Jesus; they express grateful praise and adoration; they 
show that Thomas has been gripped and held by Christ, 
that is, that he has a certain, yea, a living faith which stays 
and upholds him. “Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, 
thou hast believed.” 

Yea, Lord, I have seen thee; but that is not the whole truth: 
Thou hast seen me, thou hast spoken to me, thou hast helped 
me, and therefore I believe. It is thy work and thy gift. Now 
I know what thou meanest when thou dost say: “ Blessed 
are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Thou 
art all, and thou alone! 

And what do these words mean for our faith, dear breth¬ 
ren? Surely we, too, want to see, and we think that our 
faith is dependent upon our seeing. Our trouble is the same 
as Thomas’; and if the external oppression is not to be taken 
from us, if the Lord Jesus Christ continues to let his enemies 
work their will, so that a sigh goes through Christendom, 
“O Jesus Christ, thou art long in coming! ” —do we not 
need at least a personal, a direct assurance that he lives and 
is near, and is that assurance possible without our seeing 
him? 


162 


Here Stand I! 


“ Blessed are they that have not seen ” — they that are 
not dependent upon their eyes and senses — “ and yet be¬ 
lieve ” — they that are dependent upon the living Christ. 

Are we, then, to risk believing and hope for the best? 
Not at all, dear friends; we do not want that modesty which 
says, “ I will not tempt the Lord.” We must put him to the 
test and see if he has spoken the truth; see if he is with us 
every day even unto the end of the world; see if his words 
are what he says they are: his spirit and his life, bearing wit¬ 
ness to him and creating faith. 

It is possible to believe without seeing, but not without 
his living and life-creating presence, not without the Holy 
Spirit. And that is why it is quite impossible to do without 
Jesus’ word. For it is through his word — and through his 
word alone — that the spirit works. “ The Holy Spirit has 
called me by the gospel.” And therefore we cannot do with¬ 
out prayer while hearing the word; for in this word Jesus 
himself tells us, “ My heavenly Father will give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask him.” And so, dear friends, we will 
learn both these things in our time: a new way of hearing, 
so that we may prove that “ tribulation teaches us to heed 
the word ”; and a new way of praying, so that it may be ful¬ 
filled that “ affliction teaches us to pray.” 

Then today, too, and in our case, too, out of tribulation 
and affliction will grow that faith which is strength and life 
from God, and which therefore becomes praise and adora¬ 
tion: “ My Lord and my God! ” amen. 


SUFFERING AND GLORY 

(Fourth Sunday after Trinity) 

Grace be unto you and peace from Him who is and was and ever will be! Amen. 

❖ 

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of 
God: 

And if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be 
that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be com¬ 
pared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of 
the sons of God. 

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of 
him who hath subjected the same in hope; 

Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup¬ 
tion into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
until now. 

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, 
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the 
redemption of our body. 

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man 
seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? 

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we 
should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered. 

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, be¬ 
cause he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 

— Rom. 8:16-27 


❖ 

In one thing we are again brought quite near to the time 
of the apostles and the early Christians, so near that the gap 
of almost two thousand years of history seems closed, so 

163 


164 Here Stand I! 

near that as we read the story of the apostles and the letters 
of the apostles the thought flashes through our minds with 
increasing frequency: “ Verily, a thousand years in thy sight 
are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the 
night.” For in our day people are again suffering with Christ 
and for Christ, and this suffering is necessarily bound up 
with the Christian faith and creed, and proves that the fellow¬ 
ship of Jesus is a fact and a reality in this world and is opposed 
to this world. 

But this suffering is something quite different from what 
is generally known as suffering. Sickness and poverty and 
distress and death come to us as decrees of fate, without our 
being asked whether we want them or not. Such misery can 
always count upon sympathy. It creates solidarity and binds 
us to all that bears a human countenance. But the suffering 
with and for Christ means something else, and takes the 
form of contempt and shame and ignominy and persecution. 
Then the universal human sympathy gives way to scorn: 
“ Why are the Christians so foolish ? There is enough sorrow 
to be borne: why take upon oneself a cross which one could 
leave lying if he wished ? To be sure, they do not have an 
easy time. To be sure, they are blamed for being reactionaries 
and disturbers of the peace. But why do they also talk so 
loudly and so obstinately of the one redemption through 
Jesus Christ, in a generation which thinks it has found an¬ 
other redemption ? ” 

Is it any use at all, then, to keep on preaching the old 
message of repentance and faith today when no one listens 
because meanwhile it has become a dogma that we have al¬ 
ready been properly converted and have returned to the right 
faith in our own strength ? 


Suffering and Glory 


i6 5 

No, we cannot count on human understanding and sym¬ 
pathy in the sufferings of this time. Here we are really being 
asked whether we will bear these sufferings as Christians be¬ 
lieving only in the Lord Jesus Christ and his strength. 

So once more we are brought quite near to Paul and his 
Christian congregations who fared no differently and no 
better. And this suffering is becoming a temptation to us, 
as it was to them. We wonder whether it is really necessary 
and whether it is worth while. 

While we thus question, however, we are again conscious 
of the distance between the centuries, and we notice how diffi¬ 
cult it is for us to give a definite answer and how far from 
self-evident such an answer is in our case — much more diffi¬ 
cult, or so it seems to us, than for the Christians of those 
days who watched and waited for the Lord’s second coming 
and who thought less about time and less about this tran¬ 
sient and, as they thought, dying world, than of eternity, 
than of God’s new creation in the perfect kingdom. 

For us, however, time stretches out to eternity and the 
coming of the Lord recedes into the far distance. Our hope 
— if we dare speak of hope at all — lacks passion and 
strength, while suffering proves itself to be a hard fact which 
as time goes on oppresses and harasses and wearies us more 
and more. 

Indeed we see no end to this suffering, no slackening of 
the enmity to Christ, no victory of faith over the world. On 
the contrary, the world has once again announced its un¬ 
conditional claim to sovereignty and very plainly states that 
it will allow no one within its domain to treat seriously the 
authority of him who says of himself that “ all power in 
heaven and in earth ” is given unto him. 


166 


Here Stand I! 


It strikes us as very strange that only a few decades ago 
the prevailing feeling was one of healthy optimism which 
had, it is true, more or less given up hope that Christ would 
come in power and glory, but which, on the other hand, be¬ 
lieved all the more confidently in the superiority of the Chris¬ 
tian religion and dreamed of the evolution of a Christian 
world as the fulfillment of the kingdom of God upon earth. 

Even this hope has turned to water and we are left with the 
sufferings of this time. We are left with the question of 
whether it is really worth while — indeed, whether there is 
still any justification whatever for us to proclaim the message 
of Christ as God’s good news to the whole world. 

After all, what has changed, what has improved in the 
nineteen hundred years of Christ’s mission? We may not 
express it as boldly as other people who say, “ If I were God, 
I should do things differently,” but nevertheless we, too, 
know a silent doubt and a feeling of tired resignation. Was 
it God — really God — who said, “ Preach the gospel to every 
creature ” ? And was it God — really God — who promised 
that “ every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ” ? 

What we hear and see surely tells an entirely different 
story. The world groans beneath the burden of its un¬ 
redeemed sins, and in all its ups and downs and comings and 
goings there is neither sense nor purpose. For what differ¬ 
ence, after all, do ups and downs and comings and goings 
make ? It will all be the same in the end. “ The creature,” 
says the apostle, is “ subject to vanity.” It knows neither 
whence it comes nor whither it goes, nor of the why and 
wherefore of its existence. It lives as though its life had a 
meaning, and it passes away without having found the mean¬ 
ing of that life — and leaves nothing but a sigh. 


Suffering and Glory 167 

But we ourselves are involved in this nothingness of growth 
and decay. By nature and as members of this creation we, 
too, live only in a state of seeming, for our existence and ac¬ 
tions, our efforts and endeavors seem to be directed toward 
a goal. But this goal, too, is only an end after all, a dying 
and a passing away. “All is vanity!” And so here, too, 
nothing is left in the end but a sigh. 

Can we wonder, then, if people call us Christians fools — 
fools, because we speak of redemption and yet have nothing 
to show for it; fools, because we proclaim a happy message 
for all and by so doing make an enemy of the whole world ? 
Surely it is not worth while to suffer for such a doubtful 
cause! Why do we not rather proclaim that message which 
does not bind one to anything, but — or precisely because of 
that — costs nothing, neither scorn nor persecution: the mes¬ 
sage namely, that everyone should be saved in his own way ? 

Why are we, in spite of the sufferings we must undergo, 
Christians? Why do we preach — notwithstanding these 
things — that Jesus of Nazareth is the one Saviour of the 
world when after all we can see nothing which supports our 
hope, and when all the progress we once thought we saw has 
turned out to be error and delusion ? 

Dear brethren, we do not live by hope and we do not 
preach a mere hope. We live by faith and preach concern¬ 
ing what God does for us and to us through Christ. “ I 
believe, therefore I speak” — thus says the Holy Scripture 
both in the Old and in the New Testament. And surely it is 
enough if I know that the message of the cross is meant 
for me, poor doomed creature that I am, in my weakness 
and wickedness, and that it declares me—with the whole 
authority of God — to be the child of the heavenly Father. 


i68 Here Stand I! 

When I become certain of that fact from God’s word, 
through God’s Holy Spirit, I have found in faith a firm foot¬ 
ing on which I can safely stand. Then the uncertain, waver¬ 
ing doubt as to life’s meaning ceases. “ If children, then 
heirs if we live by faith, then we live also in hope and trust 
that God does not do things by halves, but that he who 
“ hath begun the good work in us ” will “ also perfect ” it. 

And now, above the suffering which we cannot escape and 
which is certainly no small matter, we have the incomparably 
greater thing, the “ glory which shall be revealed in us,” the 
real and perfect liberty of the children of God, which con¬ 
sists in the fact that we “ shall live with him in his kingdom, 
and serve him in eternal righteousness, innocence and bliss.” 

And it is of no consequence whether this perfection seems 
near or far from us, whether we look forward to it with 
fervor or quiet joy. The one thing that matters is that our 
Christian hope should be alive and genuine. And it is alive 
so long as it draws its strength from faith; and it is genuine 
so long as it lets itself be shown its goal by God’s word. As 
for its certainty, that rests upon the promise of the Lord who 
has ascended up on high: “ Behold, I make all things new! ” 

Where there is faith which nourishes its hope upon the 
Word and looks upon the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
all the suffering of this time and all the groaning of the 
“ creature ” become the pointing finger. And this finger does 
not point — as the unbeliever says and as the man of little 
faith always fearfully believes — to the defectiveness of what 
is falsely called a happy message. This finger points to the 
perfection which is, to be sure, still wanting, but which must 
and will come as surely as our faith lives by the words and 


Suffering and Glory 169 

deeds of God which have already been revealed in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

But faith in Christ has been promised a sight of Christ; 
and so our faith means that we have not seen him yet. Suffer¬ 
ing with Christ has been promised dominion with him; and 
so our suffering at this time denotes that we have not yet 
attained that dominion. The groans will one day give way 
to the unanimous and many-voiced song of praise in honor 
of the redeemed creation in God’s new world; and so all 
groaning is but a sign that we have not yet reached that state 
of rejoicing. 

Assuredly our groaning is not over yet; the “ creature ” 
sighs under the consequences of the curse which God pro¬ 
nounced on it because of the fall of man — “ Cursed is the 
ground for thy sake”; it is mishandled and misused in the 
service of human self-aggrandizement, and yet it was created 
for the honor of God, to show forth his praise. 

We hear the groaning and know that it would rather be 
a song in praise of the Creator. We hear the groaning, and 
faith in the accomplished forgiveness of sins knows that the 
day of liberty is coming when every creature will be free to 
serve God joyfully. 

And we Christian people groan too. Yes, we groan just 
because in faith we have already received a first gift from 
God, a foretaste of the full redemption and liberation; be¬ 
cause we are pardoned and yet still know of sin and of re¬ 
bellion against God’s gracious and holy will. And so we 
wait in hope and patience for the perfecting act of God and 
long for it to be made manifest in us. 

Yes, the Holy Spirit itself, which is bestowed upon us and 


170 Here Stand I! 

works faith in us and keeps faith living in us, according to 
Paul, joins in this groaning so that it may become not an 
impatient grumbling, but a yearning and a praying that find 
favor in the sight of God and that can be certain of a hearing 
from him. 

Yes, God does his work until the end, and we must rely 
on that and believe confidently and happily that “ the suffer¬ 
ings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us.” 

And may God strengthen our faith through this his word, 
so that we may hold fast to this truth! amen. 


DEATH AND SIN, GRACE AND LIFE 

(Sixth Sunday after Trinity) 

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were 
baptized into his death? 

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ 
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life. 

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be 
also in the likeness of his resurrection: 

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin 
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

For he that is dead is freed from sin. 

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no 
more dominion over him. 

For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto 
God. 

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto 
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. — Rom. 6:3-11 

❖ 

Sin and death are the two realities in our human and 
earthly existence which we cannot grasp and with which 
we are consequently unable to cope. They are the hard facts 
on which the life of the individual and the life of the nations 
come hopelessly to grief and are destroyed. They are the 
words which must remain unsaid, because they insult good 
taste, banish our peace of mind and destroy all our dreams. 

Any other kind of question or problem, want or distress, 

171 


172 Here Stand I! 

hope or aim we tackle with reasonable hope for success; and 
if we do not succeed, our children or our children’s children 
surely will. But — sin and death! There is something sinis¬ 
ter about these words. We feel that they are restraining 
fetters. We see in them a barrier which we cannot pass. All 
men must die and all have sinned. 

It is really not to be wondered at that we do our utmost 
to move in such a way that we do not feel these shackles and 
do not see the barrier. In the period from which we have 
just emerged we brought this art to a remarkable degree 
of perfection and lived quite peacefully as though there were 
neither sin nor death. If, however, they happened to come 
so close to us that we felt menaced by them, we probably 
grasped at the faith of our fathers, at the comfort of the 
Christian religion, or at some other means of restoring our 
peace of mind as quickly as possible. 

Dear friends, I cannot regard it as a bad thing that the 
days of such a placid life and such a more than modest 
“piety” — for that is what we called it — have gone never 
to return. 

We are shocked when we hear or read with what abys¬ 
mally deep hatred the struggle is being waged and attacks 
are being launched against the truth of the Bible and the 
Christian faith; but is that not really because we are afraid 
for our conventional, peaceful, bourgeois Christian existence ? 
Is not this hatred rather a hopeful sign that our generation 
cannot cope with the realities revealed by Christ’s message 
and that the sinister element is becoming so pervasive that 
our generation cannot ignore it ? Sin and death! 

Why must each death of which we speak be called heroic, 
and why do we always speak of the life of our nation and 


Death and Sin, Grace and Life 173 

empire as eternal ? Because we know death and yet do not 
know it; we find the naked skeleton so gruesome that we 
must needs drape a cloak round it. 

Why do people fight with such passion against the idea 
of sin, especially original sin, if these are only the meaning¬ 
less abstractions they are said to be ? Why the heavy artillery ? 
Because we know sin and yet do not know it, for its reality 
eludes our grasp and so we must needs declare it a specter. 

We might add that in speaking thus of sin and death we 
are merely making a last effort to deal with them, so that we 
may not resign ourselves to the inevitable but rebel against 
the sinister reality of these two forces. “ Let us break their 
bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” But 
now that this insurrection against sin and death is in full 
swing, now that no day passes but that the battle alarm 
penetrates into our very homes and into our very hearts, we 
can no longer act the part of carefree and indifferent specta¬ 
tors. For we are being challenged to give an account of 
whether we really know a way of escape from the dismal 
prison of death and sin, or whether, on the contrary, we are 
not — and this is the reproach leveled against the Christian 
church — from generation to generation breeding a race of 
broken-spirited slaves, who “ through fear of death ” must 
be “ all their lifetime subject to bondage.” 

Does our faith only mean we are convinced that, so far as 
we human beings are concerned, sin and death are inescap¬ 
able realities which we must accept whether we like them 
or not, but that somehow and sometime God will have a 
day of reckoning with these sinister powers — as he has al¬ 
ready once done in the life and sufferings, death and resur¬ 
rection of the Lord Jesus Christ? If we believe this, and yet 


174 Here Stand I! 

to all intents and purposes everything has remained and 
continues to remain as it always was, and we are content to 
have it so, are not our enemies justified, and must we not 
admit that they are justified, when they accuse our faith of be¬ 
ing nothing but a makeshift, a virtue born of necessity, and 
therefore of questionable value ? 

Yes, do not we Christians ourselves take the sinister reality 
of sin and death much too lightly when we think that all 
we need do with regard to them is to quote such a religious 
conviction ? 

The sworn enemies of the Christian faith are quite right, 
after all, in feeling that when we speak of sin and death and 
God in the same breath we are in an impossible position. 
We are suspended over a bottomless abyss at the end of a 
frayed rope, and, terrified and horror-stricken, are watching 
the strands break one after the other. 

Sin means that I — man — am rebelling against God, the 
creature against the Creator. And I cannot help it; it is my 
nature that I should claim a right to my own will — even 
and indeed precisely as opposed to God’s will. 

And the fact that I act thus not only in isolated cases, the 
fact that I am my own God and Lord, is the original sin 
which Luther has called the “most wicked and profound 
corruption.” And the Holy Scriptures call death the “ wages 
of sin ” and thereby testify to us that God watches the re¬ 
bellion of his creature, who himself wants to be God, only 
for a little while, and then lets it taste his anger and its own 
impotence. 

Can one really consent to this state of affairs and still re¬ 
main calm ? Is not such calmness the laziness and thought¬ 
lessness of a humdrum, easygoing existence which feels quite 


Death and Sin, Grace and Life 175 

comfortable at the moment and consoles itself with regard to 
the future by saying that things probably won’t be so bad 
after all ? 

Dear brethren, the insurgents in their rebellion against 
slavery are certainly nearer to God than are the complacent 
and lukewarm Christians in their levity. 

We are being asked about our faith; not for our views 
and opinions, but for proof of its spirit and strength. Have 
we the courage, in full consciousness of what it means, to 
stand opposed to the rebellion against the Triune God and to 
accept and testify to the sinister reality of sin and death, re¬ 
membering with what supreme gravity God’s Word speaks 
of this reality ? 

To do so, however — and this is the central question on 
which everything depends — is to ask: Do we know and 
can we bear witness to another reality which is able to deal 
with sin and death because it is grace and life ? Or do we 
move in the kingdom of uncertain hopes and empty dreams ? 

One fact at least is sure: a cross stood before the gates of 
Jerusalem, and we are baptized in the name of him who 
hung and died upon that cross. The apostle reminds the 
Christian congregation at Rome of that fact and adds that 
by that baptism we win a personal share in Jesus’ death on 
the cross. Paul illustrated this point with the vigorous bap¬ 
tismal custom of the ancient Christians which consisted of 
the complete immersion of the candidate in the baptismal 
water: “ You are wholly baptized into the death of Christ, 
completely dead and buried with him. His death is 
your death! ” We know that this picture of baptism itself 
is not the important thing, for of course it is not the water 
that does it, but “ the word of God which is with the water 


176 Here Stand I! 

and in the water, and the faith which trusts this word of 
God.” 

And this is the word which matters to us, which, if we 
hear and believe it, makes the death of Jesus our own. “ For 
you! ” 

And with each of us in baptism, our “ old man ” is crucified, 
dead and buried with him. And so sin loses its power and its 
claim, for “ he that is dead has no more obligations, but is 
freed from sin.” 

When I take it as God’s word to me, when in penitence 
and faith I accept the fact that Jesus Christ of his own free 
will has died the death which I was bound to die because of 
my sin and the anger of God, I myself, as the “ old man ” 
who was I, as a sinner, have really died with him. For there 
is no longer any serious possibility of sin as a rebellion against 
God’s will if this very same holy God against whom I have 
sinned meets me in the form of forgiving love in his Son. 

This grace of God, which is the very opposite of indulgent 
weakness and is a love stronger than death, is able to cope 
with sin; for it strikes at sin’s root in the secret depths of 
our being, where dwells original sin, where our ego has set 
up its throne and will bear no other gods beside it. 

Moreover, what is true of the death of Jesus Christ — that 
if we believe in his word we take part in his death as in our 
own death — is equally true of his resurrection — that we 
shall live with him. And this life with him is likewise a 
present reality: we “ shall walk in newness of life,” in free and 
childlike obedience, in the faith which rejoices in peace with 
God and says, “ I delight to do thy will, O God! ” 

The question is whether this new life can cope with death. 
That is no question so far as faith is concerned, for faith 


Death and Sin, Grace and Life 177 

knows that Christ lives and that the sovereignty of death is 
tottering. “ He that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
shall never die.” 

And yet — there is one last “ but ” left — we still know of 
sin, of real and painful guilt, and we still know of a death 
we must die like all other men, and the length of our life is 
a secret with Christ and God. We are still on the way, we 
are still in the battle. The “ old man ” must daily be cruci¬ 
fied and die, and must daily come forth and arise as a new 
man who will live in everlasting righteousness and purity in 
the sight of God. “We walk by faith, not sight.” Thus we 
are referred back daily to the crucified and risen Lord, so 
that we must let ourselves be led and sustained by him, but 
also so that we may daily hear and obey his word, “ Reckon 
ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.” 
Then sin and death lose their terror—Luther speaks of the 
death through which we as believers must pass as a “ little 
death” and as a “sweet death” — and we go forward to 
meet life as redeemed men and women, passing from 
strength to strength. May God’s grace help us to do so! 

AMEN. 


LIFT UP A STANDARD 

(Seventh Sunday after Trinity) 

Grace, mercy and peace be with you from God the Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold 
their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. 

And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise 
in the earth. 

The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely 
I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the 
stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast labored: 

But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and they that 
have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. 

Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, 
cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. 

Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the 
daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, 
and his work before him. 

And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and 
thou shalt be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken. — Isa. 62:6-12 

* 

In these prophetic words to Jerusalem God speaks to his 
people who have returned from the Babylonian captivity but 
have already lost the first joy over their regained freedom 
and are now plunged in deep despondency. To be sure, 
they were again in the land of their fathers; they again 
served the living God in his temple which had been rebuilt 
from the ruins. But the great and glowing hopes with which 
the people of the captivity had looked forward to this time 
had not been fulfilled. Jerusalem remained a desolate, half- 

178 


Lift Up a Standard 179 

forsaken city; houses and palaces stood untenanted; the walls 
lay in ruins and, far from offering any protection against 
hostile attacks, frankly invited the attention of marauders. 
Because of these circumstances the stream of returning exiles 
had ceased, and on those who had already returned lay the 
oppressive burden of disappointment, and people bore in 
silence what they could not alter. 

A paltry little incident from the great panorama of world 
history, and from the annals of a strange nation and a 
strange land. What have these things to do with us ? They 
all belong to the Old Testament, and we are daily told that 
we shall only make ourselves ridiculous if we spend time on 
it, that we shall lose caste among our contemporaries if we 
continue to take it seriously. 

Now, it is undoubtedly possible to set forth a number of 
reasons for treating the Old Testament with reverence. It 
contains a great wealth of evidence of genuine piety. Not 
only did Jesus pray in the words of the Old Testament 
Psalms, but men like Luther and Paul Gerhardt used the 
words of these Psalms in their hymns, which are still alive 
among us. It is also rightly pointed out that the message 
of the New Testament is intimately bound up with the history 
that preceded it, with the word of the law and the prophets, 
and that the Old Testament was Jesus’ Bible. 

But that is not conclusive, for after all there is evidence 
of genuine piety even outside the Old Testament, and per¬ 
haps there are also other ways of gaining an understanding 
of the New Testament. The final proof is that the Old 
Testament is also God’s word, in which the Triune God 
makes himself known in his grace and truth, in mercy and 
judgment; in which the Father testifies to his people through 


180 Here Stand I! 

the Holy Spirit concerning Jesus Christ, so that his people 
may hear and believe and obey. And since Israel has ceased 
to be God’s people, because it refused to hear and believe and 
obey, God’s word goes through the world and gathers a 
new Israel in the church of Christ, which has now entered 
upon the inheritance. That is why we know that it is we 
who are being addressed when in the Old Testament we 
hear God calling Jerusalem or Zion. It is the church of 
Jesus Christ which is meant to pay heed to such words. For 
how does the apostle Peter put it: “Ye are a chosen gen¬ 
eration, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
people ”! 

So in place of that picture from the remote past of which 
we were reminded, we have the immediate and living present 
in which we as a Christian community have been set. We 
too have just come from a Babylonian captivity of the church, 
when the word of God had to serve strange masters and to 
proclaim the glory of man instead of the honor of God, and 
it has truly been a miracle performed before our eyes to see 
how the fetters broke like frayed ropes, without our inter¬ 
vention; how in spite of all the enticements of the new 
false doctrine and in spite of all the threats of those who pro¬ 
claim it we have escaped from slavery and found our way 
home; how God’s word is being preached among us purely 
and simply as the happy message of the salvation which God 
has prepared for us in Jesus Christ, so that we may honor 
him. 

Of course, the first joy in our case, too, long since has given 
way to a feeling of disillusionment. We now see how small 
is the number of the returned exiles. We can no longer con¬ 
ceal from ourselves how the great majority of those who be- 


Lift Up a Standard 181 

came members of Christ by baptism prefer to be slaves and to 
serve strange gods. Jerusalem is deserted. 

And now we see too how uncertain our own existence as 
a Christian community has become. We sow, but who reaps ? 
We plant, but who gathers in the fruit ? What will become 
of our young people whom we instruct and confirm ? 

There is talk of “ deconfessionalizing ” our nation, but it 
is becoming clearer from day to day that the enemies of Jesus 
Christ are deliberately using all their influence and all their 
power to deprive our people both of their church and of 
their Christianity. 

What is the good, then, of sowing and planting, when there 
can be no harvest? We are defenseless against the attack of 
the enemy and must be glad if we merely manage to exist 
from day to day. The walls are destroyed, and a fearful 
despondency, a terrified silence seeks to lay hold on us. Per¬ 
haps we can live undisturbed a little while longer in some 
dark corner. Perhaps we ourselves can at least continue to 
live and die as Christians. 

But listen, dear friends, God does not want us to bow to 
what seems to be the inevitable; God does not want us to 
await the end of his church in silent resignation. It is thus 
that unbelief acts, which looks upon what is visible and fails 
when it finds nothing to which it can cling. It is thus that 
“ little faith ” acts, which possibly tries to do something when 
it is called upon, but is seized with terror and gives way to 
doubt when a strong wind begins to blow. 

To be sure, we see nothing today to which we can cling. 
To be sure, a strong and cutting wind is blowing against us, 
and we have no idea when and how we are to be rescued. 
Nevertheless, faith must here be strong and of good courage, 


182 Here Stand I! 

because it knows that whatever the eye may see and whatever 
the heart may say God’s word and promise are behind it. 
God does not wash his hands of the work of his church. He 
has sworn, “I will no more give thy corn to be meat for 
thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink 
thy wine, for the which thou hast labored.” He has promised 
that his “ word shall not return unto him void ” but that “ it 
shall prosper in the thing whereto he sends it.” How should 
we dare to be silent when God wants his word to be pro¬ 
claimed — regardless of whether we consider the proclama¬ 
tion to be in season or out of season ? 

Though the walls may lie in ruins, our first duty is not to 
build them up again. Though only a few of us are left in 
the church which acknowledges Christ to be the one Lord, 
the one thing needful above all others is not that we should 
be many. It really does not matter whether it is two years 
or two decades before the church regains its internal and 
external peace — for we cannot bring about that peace! Nor 
does it matter whether the new paganism wins a few more 
hundred thousands of adherents — for we cannot prevent 
that from happening! But surely it is of the greatest im¬ 
portance whether the will of God has so much power over 
us that, regardless of the danger which may be involved, 
we let ourselves be posted as watchmen on the ruined walls 
and, caring nothing for the hatred and enmity of men, bear 
witness to what we are commanded to proclaim in the name 
of Jesus, through whom God opens up our way to repentance 
and faith. In order that this message may be made known by 
us, the Lord has promised that even the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against his church. In order that we may not keep 


Lift Up a Standard 183 

silent concerning this word God has pledged that “ Jeru¬ 
salem will be established and made a praise in the earth.” 

A church that believes in Christ can therefore wait in pa¬ 
tience and steadfastness until it pleases God to give it peace. 
It need not, indeed it dare not, purchase that peace with 
concessions. And a church that believes in Christ is free 
from the agonizing unrest and anxiety of wondering whether 
it is winning the masses and whether it has them on its side 
or not, for it lives not by the favor of men, but by the grace 
of God. 

It is indeed necessary that we let that fact be impressed 
upon us, for the devil is going about among us today trying 
to persuade us that the time of the church is past because the 
mighty ones of this world have withdrawn their favor from 
it, and it must now resign itself, whether it likes or not, to 
a ghetto existence. That idea is thought and spoken as 
though God were not God and as though men were in a 
position to obstruct his work and to fetter his word. 

But God does not let himself be put upon the defensive. 
He does not let his word be shut up within church walls. 
“ Go through the gates! Prepare ye the way of the people! ” 
Surely that command does not sound as if God were think¬ 
ing of giving up his claim. No matter how many obstacles 
may be piled up, no matter how large the stones which are 
rolled across the path to keep out the word of God, “ Is not my 
word like as a fire,” said the Lord, “ and like a hammer that 
breaketh the rock in pieces ? ” 

It is not for us to ask how much trust we have in ourselves. 
But it is for us to answer whether we trust God’s word to 
be God’s word and to do what it says. 


Here Stand I! 


184 

We may well be discouraged and despondent when we 
hear the strong words with which war is today being de¬ 
clared upon “ Jah, the demon of the wilderness.” It may 
frighten us to see how the roads which used to lead our na¬ 
tion to the living God are one after the other being choked 
with debris. How shall we clear a path there? How are 
we to move away the stones? It is no use; we can never 
manage it. No, we cannot! 

But is that how we are placed, after all ? “ Lay hold upon 
the Word,” says Martin Luther, “ and then thou shalt not 
be alone! ” If that word has grown too powerful for us, so 
that we must bow down to it because we can no longer hold 
out against the holy love of God, because it has proved itself, 
in the message of the cross of Jesus Christ, to be a divine 
force, how shall we doubt that it will also succeed in deal¬ 
ing with all other opposition? We need not worry about 
the result; we need not ask whether the time of the 
gospel is perhaps past after all. It is not passing away: 
“Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the 
world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation 
cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before 
him.” Our one anxiety must be to pay heed to God’s word 
and to believe it and to proclaim it and bear witness to it. 
The faith and loyalty of each and all of us are at stake! 

AMEN. 


OF THE TEMPTATION OF THE 
CHURCH 


(Ninth Sunday after Trinity) 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the 
Holy Spirit be with us all! Amen. 

❖ 

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our 
fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 

And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual 
Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. 

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown 
in the wilderness. 

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after 
evil things, as they also lusted. 

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people 
sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one 
day three and twenty thousand. 

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed 
of serpents. 

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed 
of the destroyer. 

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written 
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God 
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will 
with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

— / Cor. 10:1-13 

❖ 

Dear brethren, does not what the apostle tells us here about 
the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness 

i8 5 


186 


Here Stand I! 

strike us as being very far-fetched? And the manner in 
which he speaks of these happenings seems to us extremely 
artificial and peculiar. It is true that we hear the warning 
in them, but we feel that this warning is weakened rather 
than strengthened and obscured rather than illuminated by 
the arguments which precede it. “ Let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he fall!” And yet we grasp the 
meaning of this message immediately; and if we still need 
special proof, we certainly find within our own experience 
plenty of instances which make us realize how much cause 
we have to remain awake and to take care. For daily we 
stumble and fall; and who among us does not know how 
prone we human beings are to temptation, nay, who does 
not know of temptations which have caused us to fall so that 
we bear the scars of our falling for the rest of our lives! 

We have good reason indeed to take the sixth petition of 
the Lord’s Prayer very seriously and to pray daily that God 
will bless us and keep us so that we may not fall and perish 
in “unbelief, despair and other great infamies and vices.” 

The fact is that every day we have to deal anew with our 
old Adam, who refuses to die; we have to deal with our 
natural heart, which defies the will of God and is secretly 
afraid of itself; and we have to deal with the world around us, 
which imposes its law upon us. And at this very moment 
we feel the oppression of the world in which we are forced 
to live, and of its law which has power over us. And un¬ 
belief and despair are very, very near us. When we consider 
whether we are still able to live as Christians in a world 
which sets up its law in open opposition to the law of God — 
and there is no doubt that the way leads more and more 
clearly in that direction —we can no longer comfort our- 


Of the Temptation of the Church 187 

selves with the quotation, “ There hath no temptation taken 
you but such as is common to man.” For we know that here 
is something more than the testing and proving of the in¬ 
dividual such as the Lord Jesus Christ asks of every human 
life which desires to belong to him. Here it is becoming ob¬ 
vious that in the struggle in which we are involved every¬ 
thing is at stake and God and Satan are wrestling with each 
other for the mastery. 

Up till now we have lived as Christians who had to light 
a brave and honest battle in this world and in this life, and 
while so doing we have probably felt that there is a last, still 
unsettled tension between the kingdom of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, to which we are called by faith, and the kingdom of 
this world, to which we belong by our physical and earthly 
existence. Yet for generations we have lived under the de¬ 
lusion that this final antagonism was being silently wiped out 
and that there was no longer danger of a serious clash. 

To be sure, we have a text about the “ last things we are 
told that Christ will return to “judge the quick and the 
dead,” and we speak of an “ end of the world ” and a “ last 
day.” But we have grown accustomed to putting these events 
away from us into a far-off, remote future which does not 
affect us today. We live and act as though, until further 
notice, God and the world had agreed to make common 
cause. 

And now we see with some horror that this happy situ¬ 
ation does not exist; that our personal struggle for a Chris¬ 
tian life in faith and obedience is not enough, for we 
are being drawn into a titanic battle between heaven and 
hell, between God and the devil, between angels and demons. 

The world is coming to an end, and we are in the midst 


188 


Here Stand I! 


of the upheaval. For that dream of which we have just 
spoken is really nothing but a dream. Since the world put 
the Christ of God to death upon the cross and since God gave 
him the sovereign power the world has been out of joint, and 
the devil is loose, because God’s judgment has begun. 

Now we are fighting for the cross — for faith or unbelief, 
for the sovereignty of the crucified Christ or the sovereignty 
of the prince of this world. And we must not dream of 
peace. Indeed we must not even hope for a truce. We must 
realize clearly that we are being called upon to make a last 
bid for victory by the message of the cross which saves us 
from the power of the world and its prince and gives us the 
peace of God, lest we perish in this final battle with its more 
than human temptations. 

Because the judgment passed upon the world began with 
the cross of Jesus Christ, and because through that cross the 
end of worldly arrogance is now drawing nigh, the devil 
must go out after the whole world, for he gains nothing by 
causing isolated individuals to fall or stray into unbelief 
(though he certainly continues to do that and enjoys doing 
it). But he cannot rest until the message itself has been si¬ 
lenced. And so his hatred is directed against the whole of 
Christendom and his temptations are aimed at the church 
which preaches and spreads the word. 

Possibly the world can tolerate individual Christians, possi¬ 
bly it can tolerate the principle that each individual must be 
saved in his own way; but as long as it wants to be itself it 
cannot seriously want the church of the cross, but must fight 
against it in one way or another. And the more determinedly 
the world approves of itself, the more sharply must it resist 
a message based upon the belief that this world must pass 


Of the Temptation of the Church 189 

away, nay more, that the judgment of God has already been 
pronounced upon it. 

It is to no purpose, dear brethren, to act as though we had 
to bring to the world the long-desired golden age of un¬ 
trammeled sovereignty. The gospel is called “ good news ” 
because in place of the sovereignty of the world it sets the 
supreme power of God and in Christ opens to us the door 
through which we are to enter into the kingdom of God in 
penitence and faith. 

As Christians we have no claim upon the gratitude or sym¬ 
pathy of a world which believes in itself and its own superi¬ 
ority. The world must feel that our faith and our preaching 
set us far apart from it. Jesus is surely right when he tells 
us, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” 

And so there is no place in this world where we as Chris¬ 
tians are truly at home. In the Israel of the Old Testament, 
which God leads into the desert in order to bring it into the 
Promised Land, we recognize ourselves as the church and 
chosen people of the Lord Jesus Christ. And though we may 
find it strange that Paul sees baptism foreshadowed in the fact 
that God, concealed in a cloud, leads the children of Israel 
through the sea, and that he connects the manna from heaven 
and the water from the rock with the presence of Christ in the 
holy sacrament, one thing is brought very forcibly home to us 
— that the majority of the people, in spite of the great deeds 
and the rich gifts of God, did not reach the goal but came 
to grief in the temptations of this road through the wilderness. 

There lies the warning which is meant for us. We owe 
the fact that we as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ have 
been freed from bondage and that sin, death and the devil 
have no more power over us, to God’s act of redemption, to 


190 Here Stand I! 

which we have been admitted through baptism. We owe the 
fact that we as a church of Christ live in the midst of this 
world of death to the gifts of God which nourish our faith 
and which are never wanting — the gifts of the word and 
the sacrament. 

But the earthly path of the church lies through the wilder¬ 
ness, and that path is full of pitfalls. And these pitfalls tempt 
not only this individual or that, but the whole company of 
the people of God, of the gospel, of the right faith and love 
and hope. For the world knows that these things menace 
it, and so it attacks them, trying to make the church renounce 
its allegiance to its Lord and return to its former state of 
bondage. 

Today we understand anew that we as a church are wan¬ 
dering in the wilderness and that we are utterly separated 
from this world and its desires. We know also the distress 
which this wandering means for us. That distress comes 
not only from the fact that we are looked upon with distrust 
and hatred, but also — and no less — from the fact that in 
following our way we are becoming homeless upon the earth. 

We long to be able to enjoy life. We long for human 
fellowship and for a tangible aim. But these things can be 
had only at the price of giving up the Lord Jesus Christ and 
ceasing to be his church. The suggestion that we do so is 
being pressed upon us today. The tempter knows how to 
make it seem very attractive. We are told that the Lord Jesus 
Christ will of course be given his rights beside the golden 
calf, and that Christian brotherly love will of course continue 
to be recognized along with the fellowship of the nation 
which is bound together by blood, and that there will be 
room for eternity also when this life of time is over. But in 


Of the Temptation of the Church 191 

that also lies the devilish temptation which is seeking to win 
victory for the world over the church of Christ. 

And Satan comes with threats to the church which refuses 
to listen to his tempting voice. Threats are now the order of 
the day, and it must be admitted that they have long ceased 
to be human temptation in the sense that they aim at ruining 
only this individual or that. No, they are aimed at the whole 
of God’s people, and are intended to bring it to idolatry. 
They are aimed at the tens of thousands, at the hundreds of 
thousands, to make them desert God’s commands. Every¬ 
thing is at stake: heaven and hell, and the end of the world 
which must choose between God and Satan. And so “let 
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 

Once again, dear brethren: everything is at stake, even — 
and particularly — for us as the church of the message of the 
cross. For it is finally a question of this cross. It is at this 
point that the hottest battle is fought, a battle in which our 
sole support is the loyalty of God who gave his only-begotten 
Son for us and to us. “ God is faithful, who will not suffer 
you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the 
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to 
bear it! ” amen. 


YE WOULD NOT! 


(Tenth Sunday after Trinity ) 

Grace be unto you and the peace of Him that was and is and is to come! Amen. 

❖ 

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and 
some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your 
synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the 
blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye 
slew between the temple and the altar. 

Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which 
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 

For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. — Matt. 23:34-39 

❖ 

One of the most marked features of the present time is that 
a new and energetic attempt is being made to subdue life as 
a whole, with all its cares and sorrows, with all its riddles and 
problems, by laying hold on it firmly and boldly. 

As we look back at the period which lies behind us we are 
depressed to see that no valiant effort was ever made to master 
the constantly increasing difficulties, but that we got more and 
more into the way of allowing ourselves to be carried along 
by the current of events. Hence the longing for a complete 
change in our way of thinking; hence the passionate determi¬ 
nation to tackle our problems with all the strength that 

192- 


Ye Would Not! 193 

remains to us and to create something new. In these circum¬ 
stances it is not to be wondered at that even the religious forces 
and powers in our nation should be weighed and assessed to 
see whether they are willing to serve this determination and 
its aim. 

Consequently, there is talk among us today of a “ positive ” 
Christianity, or recently also of a “ positive ” religion — 
which means that even in the domain of religion we consider 
anything to be positive which helps us realize and stabilize 
our great aim of becoming a united, strong and proud nation. 
Anything that does not serve that aim is of no interest to us; 
anything that opposes it must be eliminated. 

Thus it happens that at the present time all religious doc¬ 
trine and teaching is being subjected to inexorable criticism 
in order to discover whether it is useless or negative from the 
positive or practical standpoint, whether it is an obstacle to 
our ultimate national aim. And so it also happens that for 
years the well meant counsel has been pressed upon us to 
adapt the Christian message to our new position and task, 
and to reform the faith and bring it into line with a “ posi¬ 
tive ” Christianity. 

What the “ reformers ” have in mind is, first and foremost, 
a more vigorous exposition of Jesus’ preaching, insofar as 
that preaching demands an incomparable moral heroism and 
so mobilizes the last moral reserves in us and grips us by its 
appeal to our moral integrity. They are thinking also of the 
ideal picture of Jesus’ personality, in which the heroism he 
demands has found its perfect realization in service, sacrifice 
and devotion. 

On the other hand, the establishing of these demands in 
the approaching kingdom of God, or the establishing of 


194 Here Stand I! 

that unique personality in the equally unique relation to God 
of the man Jesus, whom we believe to be the only-begotten 
Son of the Father, seems to them of no account. These mat¬ 
ters must and may, therefore, be left to the individual to 
believe or not as he pleases. 

The “reformers” talk also of a definitely “negative” 
Christianity, which is consistently to be denied and, where 
it shows itself, to be resisted — and the presence of this “ nega¬ 
tive ” Christianity is suspected wherever the ideal of the free, 
strong and proud man is violated, wherever the doctrines of 
sin and forgiveness, of repentance and grace, and of the cruci¬ 
fied and risen Christ as the one and only Saviour are preached. 
For this message undermines our morale and prevents us 
from believing with supreme and absolute certainty in the 
success of our worldly efforts and in the stability of our work. 
Grace and forgiveness — that means that it is not we who 
are the authors of our fortune, and that however much we 
may strain and strive we are not able to determine success 
and its duration. Sin and repentance — that surely means 
that the last and decisive word is spoken by someone else — 
by God, who alone has power to grant forgiveness or to refuse 
grace. 

Shall we bow down to him, or must we not rather resist 
him if we pursue the aims of our “ positive ” Christianity ? 
That is the question with which we, in common with our 
whole nation, are again faced. Do we want a Christianity 
which we can use to further our own plans and aims, or do we 
want the Lord Jesus Christ who reveals the plans and aims 
of God to us ? Which is to be the criterion: our claim on God 
or God’s claim on us ? Is God’s will to conform to our will, 
or is our will to conform to the will of God ? 


Ye Would Not! 195 

Today is the tenth Sunday after Trinity, a day which has 
for centuries been dedicated in the Christian world to the 
memory of the destruction of Jerusalem and the fate of the 
Jewish people; and the gospel lessons of this Sunday throw 
a light upon the dark and sinister history of this people which 
can neither live nor die because it is under a curse which for¬ 
bids it to do either. 

We speak of the “ eternal Jew” and conjure up the picture 
of a restless wanderer who has no home and who cannot find 
peace. We see a highly gifted people which produces idea 
after idea for the benefit of the world, but whatever it takes 
up becomes poisoned, and all that it ever reaps is contempt 
and hatred because ever and anon the world notices the de¬ 
ception and avenges itself in its own way. I say “ in its own 
way,” for we know full well that there is no charter which 
would empower us to supplement God’s curse with our 
hatred. Even Cain receives God’s mark, that no one may kill 
him; and Jesus’ command, “Love your enemies! ” leaves no 
room for exceptions. But we cannot change the fact that 
until the end of its days the Jewish people must go its way 
under the burden which Jesus’ decree has laid upon it: “ Be¬ 
hold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto 
you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! ” 

And so, it seems to me, we are left with the realization that 
this people, in its impossible existence, will remain proof of 
the fact that to the Lord Jesus Christ “ all power is given, in 
heaven and in earth.” 

What is the reason for this punishment which has lasted 
for thousands of years ? Dear brethren, the reason is easily 
given: the Jews brought the Christ of God to the cross. But 


196 Here Stand I! 

we must not utter these words with an undertone of human 
and moral reproach. For we may render ourselves liable to 
the same doom if we endorse the verdict of censure without 
examining it. 

I cannot help saying quite harshly and bluntly that the 
Jewish people came to grief and disgrace because of its posi¬ 
tive Christianity. It bears a curse throughout the history of 
the world because it was ready to approve of its Messiah just 
as long and as far as it thought it could gain some advantage 
for its own plans and aims from him, his words and his deeds. 
It bears a curse because it rejected him and resisted him to 
the death when it became clear that Jesus of Nazareth would 
not cease calling to repentance and faith, despite their in¬ 
sistence that they were free, strong and proud men and be¬ 
longed to a pure-blooded, race-conscious nation: “We be 
Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man! ” 
Jesus paid no heed. In spite of their earnest piety he still 
called upon them to repent, and demanded faith in the name 
of God, and made salvation dependent upon himself: “No 
man cometh unto the Father but by me!” He thus pro¬ 
claimed the message of the grace of God for the sinner who 
repents as the gospel which had become a reality in him. 

Here positive Christianity, which the Jewish people 
wanted, clashed with negative Christianity, as Jesus himself 
represented it; the pious will of man came into conflict with 
the will of God. “ How often would I have gathered thy 
children together, but ye would not.” The choice has been 
made; the people whom God has followed with his mercy 
and his judgment, to whom he has again and again shown 
his gracious and holy will, to whom he has finally sent his 


Ye Would Not! 197 

Son with the joyful message of the forgiveness of sin and the 
peace of a new life in his kingdom — that people has chosen 
its own way and will and has counted the forgiveness of sins 
as nothing. 

Now it bears the curse. Because it rejected the forgiveness 
it drags about the frightful burden of the unforgiven blood- 
guilt of its fathers. The blood of all the righteous men who 
were ever murdered because they testified to the holy will 
of God against tyrannical human will has come upon its 
head, as well as the blood of Jesus and the blood of all his 
messengers. 

But who can keep on hating when God’s judgment is in 
full force! 

It should make us frightened and anxious to realize that 
we and our nation face the same question of negative or posi¬ 
tive Christianity. A man to whom hundreds of thousands 
of people listen today — an upright, devout man who is thor¬ 
oughly bent upon establishing a positive religion — has 
bluntly declared that “ Jesus Christ is not to be taken over 
into the new German faith.” 

Yes, friends, can we risk going with our nation without 
forgiveness of sins, without that so-called negative Christian¬ 
ity which, when all is said and done, clings in repentance and 
faith to Jesus as the Saviour of sinners? I cannot and you 
cannot and our nation cannot. “ Come, let us return unto 
the Lord!” 

The danger has grown to gigantic proportions in our time. 
Let us wrestle and pray that our people may not lack that 
handful of righteous men whose sins have been forgiven for 
Christ’s sake, so that God may be gracious to it, so that he 


Here Stand I! 


198 

may not speak the conclusive last word, “Ye would not! ” 
but may give us still more time to hear the word which calls 
us to Christ as the Saviour of sinners. 

Lord, have mercy, have mercy upon us! In thee alone we 
hope — let us not stray from thee! amen. 


THE OFFICE OF THE CHURCH 


(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity) 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the 
Holy Spirit be with us all! Amen. 

❖ 

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, 
epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered 
by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables 
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. 

And such trust have we through Christ to Godward: 

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but 
our sufficiency is of God; 

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, 
but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. —II Cor. 3:1-6 

❖ 

At first glance, dear brethren, it certainly looks as though 
this text had little or no connection with us. Paul is here de¬ 
fending the authority of his apostolic office against the re¬ 
proach of presumption. His opponents seem to have accused 
him of having no lawful authority for his actions and of 
trying to make up for this lack — as can be understood only 
too well from the human standpoint — by pushing his per¬ 
sonal accomplishments and merits unduly into the fore¬ 
ground. 

The apostle is defending himself, or rather he is defending 
his office, against this charge, and because he has to deal with 
opponents who, being of Jewish origin, set a particularly 

199 


200 Here Stand I! 

high value on the law, Paul here contrasts the New and the 
Old Testaments. 

But we feel that this incident is of only historical impor¬ 
tance and that this is one of those desolate stretches of Scrip¬ 
ture where we find no living springs. And yet it only seems 
so, for Paul is after all not just anybody; he is the apostle of 
Jesus Christ, and his office did not end with his work on 
earth but is still being fulfilled in our midst today through 
the service of the church. 

If the campaign against Paul has been resumed in our 
day, if after nineteen hundred years the legitimacy of his 
apostolic office is again being questioned, and if it is spread 
abroad that this Paul falsified the teaching and message of 
Jesus of Nazareth, then we are directly affected in the highest 
degree. For this attack is not directed against the man who 
died a martyr under Emperor Nero and was buried in Rome, 
but against the apostle and his message — that is, against the 
church and its teaching. 

We are now being asked — not we pastors alone, but we, 
the church —whence comes our power and on what author¬ 
ity we base what we say and do. Therefore we are in the 
same position and are faced with the same accusation as Paul. 
Yes, our text now becomes unpleasantly relevant to present- 
day affairs. For we are being asked for our passport, as it 
were, to prove that our existence is justified, or at least for a 
letter of recommendation on the basis of which the church 
may be given favorable treatment, or for a statement binding 
us to take into account the criticism which is being leveled 
at the church and its message. 

What do these demands mean? And what is behind 
them? 


201 


The Office of the Church 

Today in every town and province there is a loud cry that 
the Christian church free itself from the dead formulas and 
dogmas with which no one wants anything more to do, and 
in their place preach a Christianity of life and action. If 
that were done, we are told, if the church would only under¬ 
stand and follow the signs of the times, it would be possible 
to recommend it and to further its interests; it would be pos¬ 
sible to hold out to it prospects of an influential place within 
the framework of our national life; indeed, it would be pos¬ 
sible to promise it an assured future with far-reaching possi¬ 
bilities for its work. 

A Christianity of life and action, a “ positive ” Christianity 
— was not that, they say, the whole aim of the founder of the 
Christian religion? Was not that the whole aim of Jesus of 
Nazareth himself? And does not his message reach its cli¬ 
max in the assertion that “ greater love hath no man than 
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”? Surely 
the church should understand and should again proclaim 
that life and action are the important things, as against those 
abstractions such as Paul was the first to push into the fore¬ 
ground— sin and grace, faith and justification; abstractions 
which again and again have become dead formulas and 
dogmas. 

And today the times are exceptionally favorable for such 
reform. The men and women of our day long for guidance 
and yearn for fixed standards against which to measure their 
desires and actions. And the question of the law of God, 
of his ordinances and commands with regard to our life in 
this world, is waiting for an answer — for the answer of the 
church. 

And how much could be done if the church would free 


202 


Here Stand I! 

itself of its antiquated notions, if it would accept the watch¬ 
words of the day and the prevailing philosophy of life! Un- 
dreamed-of prospects would open up! Perhaps the words 
“ state and church,” which sound discordant today, would 
again produce an effect somewhat like that of the old magic 
formula “throne and altar,” for which kings and priests 
alike had such a fondness in days gone by. That truly 
would be no bad recommendation! 

And after all, in former periods the church was not so 
scrupulous when it came to adapting its message to the 
spirit of the times. By practicing “positive” Christianity, 
in the sense of accepting today’s philosophy of life which has 
its core in a national morality, we should at once be free of 
all theological controversy and all clerical squabbling. The 
confessional schism would disappear almost of itself, in¬ 
stead of growing, as it does today. For the individual would 
be left to decide quietly for himself from which eternal or 
temporal, divine or human sources he would draw such a 
“ positive ” Christianity. 

However, we are not in a position to accept such a recom¬ 
mendation. So long as we call ourselves the church we are 
not free in what we preach or do, but are bound to the Lord 
of the church to whom belongs the office in which we stand. 
The Lord Jesus Christ has ordered us to “ teach them to ob¬ 
serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” We 
cannot pick out the parts of his teaching that suit us and 
suppress the parts that do not suit us. On the contrary, we 
must deliver the whole message as it is given to us. For the 
rest, we must wait and see what comes of it and what the 
Lord Jesus Christ does with it through our service. 

And so there is nothing to recommend the church and its 


The Office of the Church 203 

message to humanity but the congregation itself, for through 
it Christ speaks. The preaching of Christ is no dead doctrine. 
It creates new life. In this message there lives a mysterious 
but real power which is not called forth from man of his 
own volition but comes as a gift from God. 

Now and then this mysterious power of the gospel becomes 
visible, and men marvel at the courage and love, the stead¬ 
fastness and self-sacrifice displayed by the Christian com¬ 
munity. And so Paul can say to the congregation at Corinth, 
“Ye are our epistle, known and read of all men; forasmuch 
as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ minis¬ 
tered by us.” 

“ Known and read of all men ” — there our misery begins. 
There doubt takes up its abode in our hearts. For surely 
this power of the Christian community to testify to Christ 
has become pitifully weak and uncertain. 

It is true that the Lord praised his disciples by saying, “Ye 
are the salt of the earth; ye are the light of the world.” Yet 
the reality seems to tell an entirely different story. And 
whose fault is it ? The church’s, they say, because it is anti¬ 
quated; its formulas are out of date, its dogmas are dead. It 
must be brought back into touch with the times and with 
life. 

Oh, we have known that for a long time! New programs, 
new ideas, new ideals! For the past hundred years and more 
the church has been running after the spirit of the times with 
the plea for a “ letter of recommendation.” It has secured 
such a letter too, but each time it has had to pay for it with a 
portion of the gospel and each time it has received in ex¬ 
change a foreign ideal. There has been less and less talk of 
what God does to us through Jesus Christ, but more and more 


204 Here Stand I! 

eloquence about what we ourselves must do or would like 
to do. 

And all such talk has been of no avail. Nor could it be of 
any avail. For we were on the wrong road all the time. We 
are not concerned here with the contrast between doctrine 
and life, nor with replacing a dead dogma by life and action. 
But we are concerned with the division between the law and 
the gospel, and the question is whether we wish to assert 
our independence of God by trying to make him obey while 
we command. We are brought back to the Old Testament, 
where God’s inexorable will confronts us. And the more 
clearly and plainly this will is revealed to us, the more hope¬ 
less become our attempts to master it, the more impossible is 
it for us to maintain our independence of and our opposition 
to God. For his will becomes a judgment, paralyzing our 
actions and delivering us up to death: “The letter killeth.” 

The fact that we must share in this death if we would fol¬ 
low Christ is why Jesus so harshly opposes all attempts to 
weaken the gospel and to render God’s commandments in¬ 
nocuous. And that is why he lets his messengers and his 
whole church, with all their beautiful programs and ideas, 
suffer shipwreck. Only in that way can we become ripe 
for the message of the New Testament, the message which 
leaves us no independence with regard to God, but which 
is called “good news” because it wakes us from death 
to new life, because it gives doubting, despairing men 
and women a living hope, because it brings sinners the 
forgiveness of God and the peace of God, because, finally, 
it tells us of Jesus as the Saviour, as Paul and the apostles told 
us, on whom we depend and on whom we may depend. 
Here all that matters is what God does for us through Christ. 


The Office of the Church 


205 

And here God does not stand before us as the exacting judge, 
but as one who gives and creates both the will and the ful¬ 
fillment through his Spirit; for “the spirit giveth life.” 

And it is our office, just as it was Paul’s office, to deliver 
this message. We will be content with that mission; for it 
is enough for us and for the whole world! amen. 


THE WIDOW’S MITE 

(Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity) 

Grace be with us and peace from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

❖ 

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money 
into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 

And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which 
make a farthing. 

And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto 
you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into 
the treasury: 

For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in 
all that she had, even all her living. — Mar\ 12:41-44 

❖ 

“Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord 
looketh on the heart!” Probably we shall have to be told 
that again and again, and always with fresh emphasis. For 
we are naturally inclined to trust to appearances and, while 
appreciating the impulses and motives behind any human 
action, to judge that action by its result. 

Where should we get to, otherwise ? After all, it is facts 
that count in the end. We live in a world of material realities, 
and in this world the shilling is not merely worth more than 
the farthing; it is more. Anyone who tries to deny that fact 
will speedily be put right. 

In living our lives it would be a piece of irresponsible folly 
on our part to leave the terra firma of reality. We must be 
content to know that there is a higher court of appeal, where 


The Widow’s Mite 


207 

the verdict is determined not by the visible result nor by the 
measurable achievement but by standards which can never 
be recognized in the realm of hard facts. 

When it comes to paying an account, the farthing with 
which we always associate the devoted and self-sacrificing 
love of the widow, who with this farthing gave away all that 
she had, is still only a farthing; and the shilling, however 
much it may bear the character of a grudging contribution, 
still pays according to its full minted value and weight. And 
so we may feel that this gospel story of the widow’s mite is 
nothing more than an elevating tale, meant to remind us 
that behind this world of visible things and its harsh laws 
there is another world, where that which is secret is revealed 
and where the thoughts of the heart are weighed in the 
balance. 

Such elevating tales are good and useful for us to hear. 
They help us to reflect and guard us against a superficiality 
which clings to what is visible only, and for that very reason 
has no roots from which to draw sustenance. Moreover, 
wherever we men work, wherever we produce and achieve 
results, the spirit behind our actions is surely not a matter 
of indifference. “ If two men do the same thing, it is not 
the same thing,” says a popular proverb, and that proverb is 
right 

A sense of responsibility, devotion and the will to make 
sacrifices are extremely important factors as far as our ac¬ 
tions are concerned, and they are woven into the result of 
our labor just as much and just as truly as is any indifference, 
injustice or selfishness of which we have been guilty. It is a 
universal experience that ill-gotten gains do not prosper and 
that lightly won victories do not last. On the other hand, 


2 o8 Here Stand I! 

it is just as certain that widows’ mites, which have really 
meant a sacrifice to the giver, contribute more to the perma¬ 
nent value of a work than any sum which has been con¬ 
tributed from surplus wealth, but in which the donor has no 
inward part. 

If these truths are convincingly brought home to our 
minds, as they are in this story of the widow’s mite, the effect 
on us is probably beneficial and, in the true sense of the word, 
edifying. Our conscience is rendered more sensitive when 
we recognize how in an apparently unimportant and in¬ 
significant act there is room for great and genuine responsi¬ 
bility; and our joy in doing things is increased when we see 
that even a slight gift represents a high value when it is 
offered in the right spirit. 

It remains only to ask what connection all these reflec¬ 
tions are supposed to have with the gospel. This edifying 
philosophy is obviously associated neither with faith in God 
nor with the person of Jesus. It is, rather, the common prop¬ 
erty of mankind, found wherever a coarse and superficial 
materialism does not hold sway. We need not wonder, there¬ 
fore, that a similar story concerning a woman who offers 
her entire possessions in the shape of two copper coins and 
is highly praised for so doing, is to be found among the old 
Indian stories of the saints, so that the question at once arose 
which was the copy and which was the original. Surely 
we may cheerfully ignore this question; for even if Jesus 
knew the Indian legend this story of the widow’s mite re¬ 
tains its own characteristic importance because it occurs in 
the gospel, because it does not ask us how we would judge the 
action of this woman, but tells us how the living God 
judges it. 


The Widow’s Mite 209 

The treasury in the temple at Jerusalem which is referred 
to here was a very old affair, dating back many centuries to 
the time of King Joash and the priest Jehoiada, as we read in 
the Second Book of Kings. The contributions placed in it 
served to keep the temple in repair, for the ordinary and pub¬ 
lic funds were not sufficient for that purpose; and each per¬ 
son put into the treasury according to his inclination and 
his means. 

The Jews were a pious nation and they were devoted to the 
temple as the dwelling-place of God in their midst. The 
treasury therefore knew of many a rich and opulent gift 
offered in joy, pride and gratitude, or even in sorrow, prayer 
and solemn promise. Jesus had no intention of blaming or 
rejecting this readiness to bring gifts to God. “ And many 
that were rich cast in much that was fitting: “ Offer unto 
God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High! ” 

But now, quietly and inconspicuously, the extraordinary, 
the incomparable act takes place: the poor woman’s two 
mites, her last possession and “ all her living,” join the silver 
coins. We respect this woman, for we feel that behind her 
action is a courage which we might well envy. Our text calls 
her a poor widow, and that probably means that she had more 
than loneliness to bear. And therefore her two mites weigh 
heavily. It is a hundredweight of love which she gives 
away, keeping nothing for herself. What must God’s temple 
have meant to that poor woman in her misery to make her 
give it all she had! 

It is a wonderfully confident faith, before which we stand 
marveling, which makes a human being actually dare to 
throw his cares entirely upon the Lord, feeling that “ he will 
surely make all things right.” Yes, what human happiness 


210 


Here Stand I! 

and earthly hopes must have been destroyed in this woman, 
but what new strength God’s help and goodness must have 
given her for her to be able to offer him all that she had! 
With her it became true that, “ if I have but thee, I ask noth¬ 
ing of heaven or earth! ” 

We respect this woman, and we cannot adequately praise 
her unity of thought and action which is so incredibly un¬ 
pretentious and self-evident and which quite clearly comes 
from God. Even if we had a desire to speak of “ happy trust 
in God ” and of “ heroic piety,” we feel that to do so would 
be to introduce a false note, that these are but insipid phrases 
after all. The Bible calls it “ faith,” and we shall have to 
abide by that word and guard against making it devoid of 
meaning. 

Jesus did not use the word “ faith ” in the gospel which we 
have read; yet he who has ears can hear how the Lord calls the 
poor woman blessed because of her great faith. Yet at first 
glance her action has a different aspect: There lie the two 
small copper coins among all the rest of the money. A mo¬ 
ment ago they were all the donor’s wealth; now they are but 
a pitiful contribution, and when the offerings are next 
counted by the temple servitors these coins will make exactly 
a farthing and no more. Would it not be better to give the 
money back to the poor woman? Of what use is it here 
among contributions that run into thousands ? 

I may confess, dear brethren, that in these last two years 
many a widow’s mite has passed through my hands, and 
again and again I have wondered whether it would not be 
better and more fitting to give back to the donor the money 
which could so ill be spared. After all, God looks upon the 
heart and in these matters, too, he takes the honest will for 


211 


The Widow’s Mite 

the deed. But I have never returned such contributions, 
simply because this story passes an entirely different verdict: 
“ This poor woman hath cast more in,” says Jesus, “ than all 
they which have cast into the treasury.” This farthing not 
only means more than the rest of the gifts; it is more, because 
it has found favor in the sight of God! 

The widow’s mite plays a role similar to that of the ten 
righteous men for whose sake God let mercy take the place 
of justice. For the sake of the righteous farthing, offered in 
faith, God lets the unrighteous wealth serve to build his tem¬ 
ple, so that his church may not fall to pieces but may rise 
again from the ruins. 

At the present time the question of money plays a promi¬ 
nent part where our church is concerned. There are plenty 
of people who are inclined to think that it is the most im¬ 
portant question of all. The pencil is already at work, and 
the financial departments which the state has set in authority 
over the church are proving to us in black and white that the 
church lives on the charity of the state, on the contribution 
of its millions and on the grants given to it by the state. 

We can say little against these statements; when all is said 
and done, the Christian church lives in the world and it 
cannot get on without money. But we must let ourselves be 
told by this very gospel that in God’s treasury the offering 
given in faith and grateful love is more than all riches. For 
the house of God can quite well be built among us without 
contributions from the state and without grants to the church, 
but it can never be built without that self-sacrificing and dis¬ 
interested love which is faith turned into action. 

We are gradually coming to honor God’s treasury again, 
for it is becoming plainer from one month to another that 


212 


Here Stand I! 


the church is falling into decay because the ordinary public 
resources are failing or are being directed into false channels. 
We must gratefully confess that the appeal to the Christian 
community is not dying unheard, and that today, too, we are 
thoroughly justified in saying, “ Many that were rich cast in 
much.” But that is not enough. We must also have faith in 
which thought and action are united, faith which knows it¬ 
self to be entirely indebted to God and which therefore puts 
itself entirely into God’s hands. For the true and proper 
gospel, the “good news” which comes to us in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, is this: If we bring our poverty to God, he gives 
us his riches in exchange; if we bring our sins to God, he 
gives us his righteousness in exchange; if we bring our sor¬ 
rows to God, he gives us his peace in exchange. That is the 
moral of the story of the widow’s mite, and our Lord Jesus 
Christ says, “ If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do 
them! ” amen. 


HARVEST THANKSGIVING 


The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the 
Holy Spirit be with us all! Amen. 

❖ 

When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, 
they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. 

And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto 
him, Rabbi, when earnest thou hither? 

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not 
because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 

Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth 
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for him hath 
God the Father sealed. 

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works 
of God? 

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe 
on him whom he hath sent. — John 6:24-29 


❖ 

The festival which our whole nation is today celebrating 
is not essentially a Christian festival. Rather is it a festival 
held wherever people are still conscious, or have again begun 
to realize, that humanity is dependent for its earthly exist¬ 
ence on forces and powers which lie outside it and are not its 
to command. 

And our generation has assuredly begun to have a new un¬ 
derstanding of the fact that there are such powers and that 
all our achievements and our progress have not been able 
to make our lives really secure. Yes, we are probably not 
saying too much when we declare that in our day and age 
a wave of genuine and original piety is flowing over us — 

lx 3 


214 Here Stand I! 

if by piety we understand the deep-seated instinct which is 
conscious of dependent relationships that wish to be honored 
instead of being denied, that wish to be acknowledged in¬ 
stead of being brushed aside. 

When we talk today of “ native soil ” and “ nationality ” a 
rediscovered reverence vibrates in our words. And when we 
hear of “ work ” and “ bread ” we know that these are not 
dry facts to be taken for granted, but fundamental elements 
of our existence which sustain us and without which we can¬ 
not live. 

One often hears it said of this newly awakened piety that 
we have rediscovered the first article of faith, which deals 
with the creation, and that the reformation of the church 
in our time must start with this discovery. And does it not 
actually seem that all men and women of German blood 
and German soil might here find a supreme religious ex¬ 
perience, shared by all, independent of narrow dogmas and 
doctrines, and beyond the bounds of the confessionalism that 
separates us from one another ? 

After all, fundamentally we all believe in the same God 
and in the same providence, and today, the day of thanks¬ 
giving for the harvest, it is evident that, for once at least, re¬ 
gardless of all differences of creed we glorify the same God 
and Father with one great, harmonious hymn of praise. 
And this communion of thanksgiving seems so natural that 
we are forced to wonder how the Christian church and its 
message come to follow such tortuous paths. Truly it is 
time to remind them that their own creed begins with be¬ 
lieving in the Creator and with contemplating his creation. 

Naturally, people will not agree so readily about the second 
and third articles of faith. But who knows ? Once the be- 


Harvest Thanksgiving 215 

ginnings of a new piety and faith appear, we shall by foster¬ 
ing them probably proceed from knowledge to knowledge 
and from experience to experience. After all, Jesus himself 
again and again began with the physical miseries and wants 
of mankind in order to make the message of the sustaining 
and ministering kindness of the heavenly Father clear and 
impressive. And the result surely shows, does it not, how 
right this method of approach is. During Jesus’ earthly life 
the people came in hundreds, nay, in thousands, and today 
they come in thousands, nay, in tens of thousands, when this 
message is to be heard: “ Take no thought; for your heavenly 
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” 

When we look back at the road which our nation has trav¬ 
eled, when we recall the years of distress and the times when 
we have worried about our daily bread, we know that our 
difficulties are not yet at an end. But we also know that 
miracle after miracle has been worked upon us, and that it 
was not only five thousand who were fed beyond what they 
asked or understood! 

What does it matter, then, how we picture God to our¬ 
selves or what our thoughts and opinions of him are? We 
are united in the happy, grateful confession, “ Hitherto hath 
the Lord helped us! ” And what else can or dare the church 
preach today but those words which all are ready to hear: 
“ Give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good! ” 

It is too bad that the church of Christ does not confine 
itself to this message, that it refuses to keep silent regarding 
the second and third articles of faith even today, but insists 
on proclaiming the Son of God as the Redeemer and the Holy 
Spirit as the bringer of eternal life. Is then the Creator who 
gives us our life and maintains it nothing without the Re- 


216 


Here Stand I! 

deemer who frees us from sin and death? Is he nothing 
without the Spirit which bestows eternal life upon us ? 

Surely, dear brethren, the meaning of today’s gospel lesson 
is that the living God will not allow us to accept his gifts 
happily and peacefully, and to repay them with our praise 
and thanks. The Lord Jesus Christ fed the five thousand by a 
miracle and in so doing preached a dynamic sermon on the 
creative power and goodness of God; therefore the people 
wished to make him king. They wished to lay at his feet all 
the gratitude and honor within their power. “ Thou shalt 
be our Lord! ” If the first article of faith ever received new 
life, it was here; if the children of men ever wished to honor 
the giver because of the gift, they did so here. 

And yet the giver cannot be found. He does not want 
to accept this gratitude and let himself be made the center 
of a great and imposing “ harvest thanksgiving.” Jesus was 
not there, neither were his disciples. 

Neither the living God nor his church is present when we 
praise the heavenly Giver for earthly gifts. And if we think 
that we have taken a great step forward by again recognizing 
and acknowledging, both as individuals and as a nation, a 
divine providence over our earthly existence, by again be¬ 
coming humble and grateful, we may well be on our guard 
and ask whether the living God, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
is with us or whether we are fondly dreaming of the God 
of the first article of faith, an idol which is of no more value 
than the golden calf. 

Such ideas are much in vogue among us today. Every con¬ 
ceivable effort is being made to bring in the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself as a crown witness for such a naively happy 
“ God-the-Father ” religion, as though God’s sole intention 


Harvest Thanksgiving 217 

had been to make us at home on this earth and in this life! 
Given such a religion, we should have a bread-Messiah: “ Ye 
seek me because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.” 
Then we should celebrate the harvest thanksgiving as the 
real festival of Christendom and of our nation and of all 
mankind: “We are all God’s children; for he maketh his 
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust.” Quite a nice religion — as long 
as we are well and have enough to eat! But the Lord Jesus 
Christ is not in it even though one may quote his words, and 
the living God is not in it either. 

Underlying all the goodness of God the Creator which we 
experience is the question which can never be answered by 
arguments based on the first article of faith and which gives 
the lie to all the naively happy trust in God characteristic 
of such a substitute religion — the question, namely, of death 
and evanescence: “ As for man, his days are as grass: as a 
flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth 
over it, and it is gone! ” 

What we do and what we leave undone, what we have 
or lack — all passes away. And yet we propose to talk 
seriously of God’s goodness; we propose seriously to sing 
hymns of praise and gratitude at the harvest thanksgiving, 
just as though we lived by daily bread instead of dying by it. 

Verily, it is not by chance that faith in the “ dear Lord,” 
in “ providence,” in the " Herrgott ” lasts only as long as our 
own endurance and power of resistance. How could it do 
more when this so-called faith is after all nothing but the 
creation of our own mind and our own will, a creation that 
shares our transitoriness and our fatal destiny ? Viewing our 
position from the standpoint of the first article, we cannot, 


218 Here Stand I! 

as creatures condemned to death in the midst of a creation 
condemned to death, honestly give praise and thanks with¬ 
out remembering that there is a death-knell at the end. 

Therefore the “good news” begins only when, in this 
life-in-death, we are told of the promise of life, when we 
hear the message (even though at first we hear it only as 
God’s call and command): “ Labor not for the meat which 
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting 
life! ” If we listen to that message and pay heed to it we 
are already poles apart from that worldly piety which pre¬ 
tends to be so happy, which is satisfied with bread and shuts 
its eyes to death. Then we know that the purpose of our 
life in this world does not consist solely in our doing our 
work to the best of our ability and, if the worst comes to the 
worst, living on for a little while in our posterity and in our 
German nation. Then we have to do, directly and person¬ 
ally, this very day but beyond the confines of this daily life, 
with the living God who gives us more than our daily bread, 
but who also wants more from us than a word of gratitude 
for the gifts which he as the Creator bestows upon us. 

And if we are further told — as we are indeed told — that 
corresponding to God’s call and commandment to “ labor 
not for the meat that perisheth,” and corresponding to the 
promise which opens up the prospect of a new world to us, 
there is a reality, because at one point God has actually broken 
through the ring of death which surrounds us, so that we can 
get out — if we are told that, how could we possibly act, 
even on one day in the year — today, for instance, on harvest 
thanksgiving day — as though the door to eternal life were 
not there, as though we had not been invited by Christ to 


Harvest Thanksgiving 219 

go through it, as though we were satisfied simply with be¬ 
lieving in God as the Creator! 

No, we have heard the message of redemption and cannot 
forget it. Nor do we wish to forget it, even though we are 
scoffed at as being antiquated and medieval when we still 
speak of death and sin and grace and eternal life. We know 
that when things become serious and when death stares us 
in the face, no “ providence ” or “ dear Lord ” or even the 
good old German " Herrgott ” is of any avail. Then either 
we know the Lord Jesus Christ is present and follow him 
through the door which he has broken open — or we belong 
to the God of this world who then throws off his innocent 
disguise. 

“ Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat 
which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man 
shall give unto you.” May that be the word which will this 
very hour show us the way — the way to the third article of 
faith also; for this merging of our earthly life into eternal life 
is the work of the Holy Spirit. We must do more than hear 
the message of Christ as the Redeemer; we must believe in 
him — with a faith which is not merely the product of our 
own spirit and will, but with a faith such as the Scriptures 
counsel and as Luther describes — a faith which “ the Holy 
Spirit must put in your heart and mine ”! And so this faith 
requires that we accept also the message of sanctification, 
which bestows upon us, as the gift of the Holy Spirit, what 
God’s grace worked in Christ. 

So, dear friends, let us celebrate the harvest thanksgiving as 
a Christian church. Let us rejoice at the goodness of God the 
Creator and at his gifts, but without the secret terror that 


220 


Here Stand I! 


tomorrow may be the end. Let us take these gifts as a sign 
and proof given us by God of his eternal goodness, which is 
revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and which is and ever 
will be new every morning. “ The Lord is mindful of us 
and blesses us.” To him be honor and praise to all eternity! 

AMEN. 


ONE LAST WORD* 


(June 27, J937) 

Israel has nevertheless God for his comfort! Grace be with us and peace from 
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

❖ 

Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor 
of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the 
apostles forth a little space; 

And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves and what ye 
intend to do as touching these men. 

For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to 
whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; 
and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. 

After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew 
away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed 
him, were dispersed. 

And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if 
this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: 

But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to 
fight against God. 

And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten 
them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let 
them go. 

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were 
counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. 

And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and 
preach Jesus Christ. — Acts 5:34-42 

❖ 

It was an extremely critical moment in the life of the 
church. The apostles had defied the prohibition to speak 
which had been laid upon them. They had made the formal 

* The last sermon before Dr. Niemoller’s arrest. 


zii 


222 


Here Stand I! 


confession, “We must obey God rather than man.” They 
had even taken up the offensive and accused their judges of 
murdering the Saviour sent by God, and had gone on to make 
known to them the promise of atonement and forgiveness of 
sins. “ But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart 
and were minded to slay them.” 

At this moment Gamaliel rose to his feet, and we must 
recognize that it was thanks to his intervention alone that 
the apostles were freed and that it was possible for the com¬ 
munity to go on living and working. What we feel about 
him is certainly therefore some sort of thankfulness. Un¬ 
doubtedly he was a clever, upright and pious man, and we 
would wish for another such in these critical days of the 
church — for some intelligent man who would appeal for 
caution, an upright man who would appeal for honor, a 
pious man who would appeal for reverence to God. Per¬ 
haps in our time, too, such a voice would command a hearing. 
Perhaps then such frivolous moral judgments might be 
avoided as are illustrated in that press notice of last Friday, 
which had the heading, “ Incitement to Disobedience.” 

The Prussian Council of Brethren will define their position 
about this notice; I will say just this one word, for I can do 
no other. When at the end of the notice it says, “Yes, 
another parson has escaped arrest by flight,” no doubt the 
reference is to Pastor Asmussen, who has left Berlin by the 
advice of the Prussian Council. He has neither received a 
summons, nor has a warrant for his arrest been issued, and I 
have informed the minister of justice that it goes without say¬ 
ing that Pastor Asmussen holds himself in readiness in case a 
summons is issued. We have no more thought of using our 
own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the 


223 


One Last Word 

apostles of old. But we are no more ready than they were to 
keep silence at man’s behest when God commands us to 
speak. For it is and must remain the case that we must obey 
God rather than man. 

The case today is the same as of old, and under these cir¬ 
cumstances Gamaliel’s counsel is a wise counsel, for it is 
unwise to create martyrs in a cause which one wishes, to de¬ 
feat. It is moreover good and proper counsel, for it is un¬ 
righteous to use the power of the sword to fight men’s con¬ 
victions. It is also a pious counsel, for it is impious to 
forestall the judgment of God which we do not yet know. 
The question is therefore: Would a new Gamaliel and a 
decree granting real freedom of faith and of conscience help 
us in the end? My dear brethren, let us not deceive our¬ 
selves ! The supreme council accepted Gamaliel’s advice as 
regards freedom of conscience and released the prisoners — 
though not without beating them and renewing the ban on 
their speech: “ They charged the apostles not to speak in the 
name of Jesus, and let them go.” And in the very next chap¬ 
ter of the Acts the lightning flash of the first persecutions 
breaks out, those associated with the name of Stephen and 
directed by Saul, himself a pupil of Gamaliel. 

It is clear that that tolerance for which a lance is now be¬ 
ing broken can by no means be practiced as regards Christian 
faith and Christian confession. It is clear that one cannot in 
this case adopt a position of tentative neutrality and wait to 
see how things turn out before one makes a final decision. 
For all his cleverness, uprightness and piety, Gamaliel errs, 
for he imagines the case of Jesus of Nazareth is already set¬ 
tled, just as the other cases he cited, those of Theudas and 
Judas, were settled. But in the case of the apostles, a move- 


224 Here Stand I! 

ment was concerned the success of which could not yet be 
foretold. 

As a matter of fact, the apostles preach exactly the opposite 
of what Gamaliel believes and acts upon. They preach him 
who was crucified and rose again. They preach that as re¬ 
gards themselves the decision of God has already been made, 
and that any worldly success or failure cannot change this 
decision; that the crucified Jesus is the living Christ and Lord 
of his church; that the decision whether he should be recog¬ 
nized or rejected cannot possibly be made dependent on what 
the future may bring forth. 

He who fails to make his decision of faith for the Lord 
when the word of the cross is spoken to him, makes the de¬ 
cision against the Lord at the very moment when he thinks 
he has avoided committing himself. “ He who is not with 
me is against me.” Neutrality, therefore, is in practice im¬ 
possible. It is the message of the cross which places before 
us the question: Yes or no; belief or unbelief; salvation or 
destruction. Thus all neutrality, even that which is well 
meant, turns one into an enemy, even if God may use one 
— since everything must work for the carrying out of his 
will upon earth. For us Christians, however, the counsel of 
Gamaliel, however well and honestly he may have meant it 
(and even if God used him, and still today uses him for the 
help of the community), nevertheless may represent a serious 
temptation that may prevail upon us to judge by success, 
to judge by appearances, and to base our faith on our ex¬ 
periences. This temptation has more power over us than 
perhaps we find easy to admit, for it is all too easy, in the 
suffering and in the hardship which we have to undergo, to 
draw the conclusion that after all God is not with us! That 


One Last Word 225 

after all the work for which we stand is not of God! It is 
no use therefore to trouble about it further— all is in vain! 

Dear friends, let us not forget that God offers us salvation 
in the cross of his Son; that it is in the opportunity of hear¬ 
ing and believing this message that he offers us salvation; 
and that there is nothing else in heaven or on earth upon 
which we can rest or build our faith. 

In this time of very special trial and struggle we must bear 
in mind that every attempt to gain security by some other 
means, every turning of our eyes after some other source of 
strength and support, works in a way exactly opposite to 
that which we intend; that in fact it will cause us shipwreck. 
The cross of Jesus — yes, that does indeed seem the end of 
all things and abandonment by God. Our eyes can see noth¬ 
ing else in it. If we hold with Gamaliel we come to this — 
mans counsel and mans activities! But the gospel says that 
it is just at this point that the love of God triumphs and re¬ 
veals itself to the faithful. Here are God’s counsel and God’s 
work, and he who believes, all things are his! The suffering 
of our community, the shame which we have to bear when 
we take our stand beside the Crucified One — that is indeed 
a heavy burden and hardship. We feel the weight of it, and 
doubt finds its way into our soul. What of our faith ? Jesus 
says: Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you and perse¬ 
cute you. . . . The ear of faith hears this promise, clings to it 
and finds joy and comfort. 

My brothers and sisters, is it truly joy and comfort? We 
note today that neither we nor anyone else is helped by pious 
words mingled with a little Protestant enthusiasm and with 
the customary measure of healthy optimism. The pressure 
is growing. Anyone who has gone through the fiery ordeal 


226 


Here Stand I! 


of the tempter in these last days — I think, for instance, 
how on Wednesday the secret police penetrated into the 
closed church of Friedrich Werder and arrested at the altar 
eight members of the Council of Brethren who were assem¬ 
bled there, and took them away; I think how yesterday at 
Saarbriicken six women and a trusted man of the Evangelical 
community were arrested because they had circulated an 
election leaflet of the Confessional Church at the direction 
of the Council of Brethren — I repeat, he who has indeed 
suffered all this cannot be far from uttering the words of 
the prophet. He also would like to say, “ Now, O Lord, take 
away my life.” And anyone who, like myself last Friday 
evening, had no one beside him at the communion service 
except three young Gestapo men, who have to inform upon 
the activities of the community of Jesus, young men who 
certainly were once baptized in the name of Jesus and who 
certainly have pledged their faith to the Saviour, yet are now 
laying traps for his flock — one who has had such an experi¬ 
ence cannot easily hide from himself the shame of the church. 
“ Lord, have mercy! ” And we recall how today the chancel 
of the Church of Anna remains empty because our pastor and 
brother Muller, with forty-seven other Christian brothers and 
sisters of our Evangelical church, has been taken into cus¬ 
tody. And we think at the same time how the whole Chris¬ 
tian community has been told that they too are by no means 
innocent, and how the first prosecutions are to take place 
today. Then, my dear friends, what next? Joy and com¬ 
fort ? Or despair and intimidation ? 

There is indeed no hope except to hold firmly to the Cruci¬ 
fied One and to learn to say in simple and certain faith, “ In 
the bottom of my heart thy name and cross alone shine forth 


One Last Word 


227 

at all times and in all hours, and therefore I can be glad” 
It may be long until we are truly glad, until like the apostles 
we are counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name. The 
way will not be opened today or tomorrow. And that may be 
good, for it may teach us not to take impressions for belief. 
It may teach us how, in the heat of the struggle, to mark the 
word of our Lord and to continue to hear the message of 
the cross, the gospel of Jesus Christ—perhaps for the first 
time aright. It may show us how to teach it and to hear it 
and to preach it; for our faith lives in this word, and our 
joy flows from this word: “Lord, evermore give us this 
bread.” amen. 





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